


Life With the YouTubers

by MandieMon



Category: Game Grumps, jacksepticeye, kidswithproblems - Fandom, markiplier - Fandom, youtube - Fandom
Genre: Bi, Biracial, Bisexual, Comfort, Confession, Consent, Crushes, Cuddling, Cute, Dancing, Domestic, F/M, Falling In Love, Family, Feelings, Feels, Female Characters, Flirting, Fluff, Friendship, Getting Together, Homophobia, Humor, LGBT Themes, OC, Original Character - Freeform, Pining, Romance, Singing, Snuggling, YouTube, relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-02-08 03:53:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 33,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12856176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MandieMon/pseuds/MandieMon
Summary: Well, I can officially say I have started by first Archive story. I know this isn't exactly a thrilling start, but I'm hoping to make it realistic and lifelike, which takes a bit of time to build up. Certain recognizable characters of the YouTube variety will appear soon, I promise. As of now I cannot say exactly when, because, to be completely honest, I have no idea where I'm going with this, though I have almost 150 ideas written in a notebook (yeah, I take this seriously). Hopefully, you stick around to read the whole story, but that's up to you. I'll try to work out a consistent upload schedule, but exams are coming up, so the next month will be fairly hectic. Thanks again for reading!-MM





	1. Preface

Hello, everybody! My name is MandieMon, and I just wanted to welcome you to my story. If you looked around a bit before opening this, you might have noticed that this is my first story published on this site, making me relatively clueless as to how to operate efficiently. It probably won’t take me long to learn how to navigate, but I wanted to clear that up in case I don’t update for a while. Thanks again for giving me a chance!


	2. A New Beginning

 

 

“Hey, wait up! Are you trying to lose me or something?” I shouted as my friends drifted away, leaving me behind at the luggage claim.

 

 

 

“Oh, no! She caught on to our plan! Hurry Amelia, run!” Damien joked, pretending to run away with his bags. “And it was such a great plan, flying all the way to California,  just  to ditch you and go to the convention alone.” Amelia laughed and shoved him  playfully.

 

 

 

“What great friends I have, ditching me after I offer them free lodging at my new place,” I grumbled, struggling to hook as many small bags onto my wrist as I could. "I guess you'll have to pay for lodging so you can go see your favorite YouTubers on your own," I added, "without me. Would one of you beautiful people mind helping me with these or do I have to carry the luggage of three people on my own?" I questioned  irritably, gesturing at the pile of luggage. "I mean, I know I’m strong, but I’m not the Hulk.”

 

 

 

Damien snorted. “I beg to differ. Remember that time you pulled a sink out of the wall? What did it ever do to you? The water may take a bit longer to warm up at home, but that seemed a little harsh.”

 

 

 

“Can we please let that go? It was one time, and I was only trying to turn on the water. It’s your own fault for having faucets that you pull instead of twist, like a normal person,” I shot back.

 

 

 

“Oh, my god!” Amelia burst in, “You guys, we’re going to miss our Uber if you two don’t hurry up. It’s already late, let’s  just  get back to Andi’s place, set up a few necessities, and crash for the night. Okay? Let’s go.” With that she hoisted the last remaining bags onto her shoulder and marched towards the door.

 

 

 

“Onward! Destiny awaits!” I shouted, waddling after Amelia as  quickly  as I could, considering all the extra weight from the bags. “Nerd,” I heard Damien mutter under his breath.  “Yeah, keep talking, you’re helping this nerd move into her new apartment first thing in the morning,” I retorted.

 

 

 

Half an hour of speeding down the interstate later, we finally arrived at my new apartment.  Amelia and I took my car with the bulk of the luggage, and Damien followed in the Uber with whatever boxes we couldn't cram into my car. It was nothing fancy,  on the contrary  actually.  It was one story, with a master bedroom, guest room, one full bathroom, and a  moderately  sized kitchen looking into the living room.  Overall  a decent apartment, given I was the typical broke millennial.  The floors squeaked like a haunted house with every step, the bathroom faucets dripped, and the walls were peeling, but that was to  be expected  with any starter apartment.

 

 

 

As soon as we unlocked the door and stumbled inside, we dropped our heavy bags and collapsed onto a couch left by the previous renter. We sat  quietly  for a few moments before Damien broke the silence.

 

 

 

“You know, this place is pretty decent for the price. How did you afford it, anyway, Andi? Places this close to L.A., no matter how dingy, are bound to be expensive.”

 

 

 

I shrugged in response. “I actually don’t  really  know.  I think  someone  was killed  in the apartment downstairs, but that may  just  be a rumor. I’ve had every square inch of this place checked, and there’s nothing wrong with it. At least, not anything our of the ordinary for a city apartment, so that would explain the cheapness.”  Damien shuddered at the idea of living near a murder scene, but Amelia seemed unfazed, either too indifferent or too tired to care.

 

 

 

“And on that happy note, we should  probably  go to bed.  This couch folds out into a bed, according to my landlord, so one of you can sleep here while the other takes the guest room.”

 

 

 

Amelia and Damien looked at each other and shrugged. “That works with us.”

 

 

 

“Great. I’ll help you make the beds and leave you to decide who’s sleeping where.”

 

 

 

“That’s okay, I’m pretty sure we can manage making a couple beds,” Amelia responded. “I mean, I don’t know about Damien, but I’m not _that_ useless.” Damien glared at her, then nodded, “We’ll be fine. We’re in our twenties, if we can’t make our own beds, it’s  just  natural selection at that point.”

 

 

 

“Okay, weirdos,” I shrugged, “I guess I’ll see you in the morning.”

 

 

 

“Goodnight Andi”, I heard Amelia call as I trudged down the hall to my new room. “Yeah, goodnight princess,” Damien soon followed. I  quickly  threw some sheets onto the bed and bundled myself up. _Well_ , I thought, _I guess this is it. I’m an adult, living on my own in a foreign city. This will be interesting._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I can officially say I have started by first Archive story. I know this isn't exactly a thrilling start, but I'm hoping to make it realistic and lifelike, which takes a bit of time to build up. Certain recognizable characters of the YouTube variety will appear soon, I promise. As of now I cannot say exactly when, because, to be completely honest, I have no idea where I'm going with this, though I have almost 150 ideas written in a notebook (yeah, I take this seriously). Hopefully, you stick around to read the whole story, but that's up to you. I'll try to work out a consistent upload schedule, but exams are coming up, so the next month will be fairly hectic. Thanks again for reading!
> 
> -MM


	3. First Morning

 

“Dude, get up! You need to feed us!” _What a great way to start the first morning in my new apartment._ I rolled over with a groan to face Damien, who was standing next to my bed.

 

“Go away, you stalker,” I mumbled into my pillow. “It’s too early for your crap.”

 

“ _Early?_ ” Damien replied, “It’s almost eleven. You now owe me breakfast _and_ lunch. But, hey, you could keep sleeping and just feed me for a week. I’m open to negotiations.”

 

I slowly sat up in bed. “Fine, let me get dressed and we can find a café. They’re at every corner around here.”

 

Damien fist-bumped the air. “Awesome! I’ll go get Amelia, she’s been sorting boxes into rooms for the past hour or so. Now you won’t be as busy and we can actually spend some time together.”

 

I smiled from my place in bed. “You guys are the best. I’m so glad you’re here to help me, and not just for the free labor,” I smirked, knowing Damien well enough to know he had been about to make a joke.

 

Damien sat next to me to give me a hug from the side. “Yeah, well you may be an asshole, but you’re our asshole.” I snorted.

 

“And my favorite of your _many_ interesting traits is your kindness,” I joked. “Now get out so I can get dressed, or do you suddenly not want breakfast?”

 

“Hey, hey,” he held his hands up in a placating manner, “no need for threats. Just tell me when you’re ready.”

 

“Okay,” I swung my legs off the bed, cringing as my feet made contact with the cold hard floor. “We should pick up a rug sometime soon so I don’t freeze. Anyway, I’ll probably take about twenty minutes to shower and get dressed. If you guys could unbox stuff while I get ready, I’d love you forever.”

 

“You’d better, we’re not doing this stuff for charity.”

 

I reluctantly got out of bed, wishing I could take the warm blankets with me, and headed down the hall to the bathroom to take a shower, lugging with me a small bag of toiletries I had brought with me via plane. I turned on the water to let it warm up, and set up a few bathroom essentials before stripping down and stepping into the steamy shower.

 

I quickly washed my hair and let my mind wander. _I should probably upload a video today_ , I thought to myself. _It’s been a couple of days and my subscribers must be wondering what’s taking so long_. I smiled at the thought of telling the subscribers of my YouTube channel about moving to LA. It would be an adventure that I couldn’t wait to share with them. It was a small channel, with only a thousand and a half subscribers, and no one close to me knew about it. It’s not like I’d ever become “YouTube famous” or anything, and knowing that my family and friends may be watching my videos made me nervous anyway. Better that they not know. The only exception to this rule was Amelia and Damien, who spent so much with me that it would be impossible to film without them noticing.

 

Just moments after stepping out of the shower, my phone started to ring. I glanced at the screen to see a goofy picture of my mother with one of our pet cats with the name “Mom” across the top of the screen. I quickly answer the phone as I gathered my dirty clothes and walked to my room, making a face at Damien and smiling at Amelia as I passed them. Our conversation consisted of the usual “How are you”, “Are you settling in okay,” and “I can’t believe my baby is all grown up”. I quickly filled her in on speakerphone as I got dressed and told her I was about to head out for brunch, but promised to call her soon.

 

As soon as I hung up, I finished brushing my hair and walked out to the general area to find Amelia hard at work unboxing an assortment of items, from extra sheets to clothes. “Are you guys ready to go out? I asked to no one in particular.

 

“You know it! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Come on ladies, go, go, go!” Damien shouted, rushing us to put on our shoes and throwing Amelia her purse. We piled into my car and cruised around until we found a café.

 

As we ate, we discussed our plans for the day. We decided to finish unboxing, set up my filming area, and then pick up any supplies I didn’t bring with me. I had packed as little as possible due to exorbitant travel costs and needed cleaning supplies, furniture, and dishes, to start with. I planned to vlog during most of the day so I at least had something to post on YouTube to make up for my recent absence.

 

Around eight o’clock that night, we sat on the old couch in the living room talking. “I can’t believe how far we’ve made it” Amelia reminisced. “Just a couple of years ago, we were a bunch of geeky high schoolers with no idea what we would do after graduation.”

 

Damien chuckled. “I guess some things never change. We _still_ have no idea what we’re doing.”

 

“That may be true,” Amelia conceded, “but we’ve done so much. I almost have my bachelor’s degree in engineering, you’re on your way to a great career in philosophy, and Andi has a bachelor's in psychology _and_ ASL interpreting, not to mention her YouTube channel.”

 

I smiled at her, and scooched closer to grab her hand. “You’re too nice. I don’t think I could have made it this far without you guys, and it doesn’t look like my YouTube career is going anywhere.”

 

“You should have entered that lottery think Jacksepticeye started. If you had won, your channel could have exploded overnight,” Damien chimed in, referring to a competition that ended two days ago. The premise was to enter your channel in the competition, submitting a video you uploaded. Jack would review each submission and choose fifteen winners, which he would announce in five days. Most people entered in hopes of being recognized and gaining new subscribers.

 

“Well,” I shifted in my seat, “there’s no way I could win against so many people. I mean, thousands of people entered their channels, and I’ve only been on YouTube for less than a year. I wouldn’t have had time anyway, between the packing and the moving itself.”

 

Damien shrugged. “Whatever, it’s your life. But if I were him, I’d have chosen you.”

 

“Thanks, man.” I glanced at my phone’s screen, seeing that we had been talking for over three hours. “I’d better edit this video and upload it before I fall asleep. Thanks for your help today, guys.”

 

Amelia smiled. “No problem. And don’t feel too bad about the lottery. Remember, you’ll get to meet Jack and his friends at the convention anyway.”

 

“Yeah, you’re right. I can’t believe it’s only a month away. There’s so much I have to do before then,” I worried. “I’ve got to work on this video before worrying about anything else. Goodnight guys,” I called over my shoulder, already heading to my room.

 

I quickly compiled the best moments of the day into one video, editing it along the way to give it my own special flair, and uploaded it at exactly 11:45. I then put on my pajamas and crawled into bed, taking my laptop with me. _I might as well plan my next video_ , I thought. _There’s no way I can fall asleep right now anyway_. After half an hour, I closed my laptop and put it on my nightstand, right next to my phone. I bundled myself up, feeling guilty about lying to my friends. The truth was, I had entered Jacksepticeye’s lottery. I just hadn’t told anyone because I didn’t want them to be disappointed when I didn’t win. _What was I thinking, entering that stupid competition_ , I mentally scolded myself. _There’s no way I’ll be picked. I’m one out of thousands of better, well-developed channels that actually know what they’re doing._ I rolled over. _At least nobody else knows. I might as well just forget about it,_ I thought as I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As of now, it looks like I'll be updating weekly, but I can't promise anything. I'll try to write in advance so I always have something to post, but exams are coming up and are going to make everything harder. Thanks for reading!  
> -MM


	4. A New Day

I woke up the to the sound of my phone’s alarm going off, signifying that it was 8 o’clock a.m. I sat for a second, making a mental list of all that had to be done today, before getting up and heading to the kitchen to make breakfast. On my way down the hall, I passed the open door of the guest room and saw Amelia curled up in a ball of blankets like a cat. I smiled at her sleeping form and quickly took a picture. As I was putting away my phone, I saw a notification saying three new people subscribed to my YouTube channel. _See?_ I thought to myself. _You don’t need that lottery. You’re doing just fine on your own._

            Once I got to the kitchen, I pulled out a huge bag of pancake mix from a cabinet we had converted into a pantry and started gathering the needed materials. Soon enough I had a bowl, whisk, frying pan, and set of measuring cups set up on the small bar overlooking into the kitchen. Just after I started mixing together various ingredients, I saw Damien stir on the couch.

            “Mornin’,” he mumbled gruffly, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “What are you making?” He slowly sat up and attempted to peer into the kitchen.

“Pancakes,” I replied. “With chocolate chips, of course.”

“Naturally. A pancake without chocolate chips is just a monstrosity,” Damien quipped, standing up from his place on the couch. “I’m going to shower. Can I trust that there will be pancakes when I return?” He raised one eyebrow questioningly.

“It depends on how hungry I am,” I retorted, not looking up from my batter. I poured the first cup of batter into the pan, enjoying the sizzling sound against the hot metal. “Not to mention Amelia. Try not to wake her, alright? She did a lot yesterday and deserves to sleep for a bit longer.”

“Sure thing.” Damien strode towards the hall leading to the bathroom.

Amelia stumbled into the kitchen right as I flipped the last pancake onto a serving plate.

“As some are those for me?” she asked hopefully, hugging me from behind.

I hummed a yes, giving her a quick hug before moving to set three plates and glasses on the small table we had set up until we could find a real table within my budget. I placed a fork next to each plate, along with syrup and peanut butter. Right as I finished, Damien walked out of the bathroom, drying his hair with a towel.

“Is it pancake time? Please let it be pancake time,” Damien bounded in like a little kid.

“Yes, it is pancake time,” I informed him, enjoying his childness. He wasn’t like that back home. He was always a bit hyper and out of the ordinary, but he also had an air of maturity and adultness, or was at least able to pass as a functioning adult. It was nice to see him like he was back in high school, the energetic kid with his whole life ahead of him and stars in his eyes.

He fist-bumped the air, grinning, and sat down, dowsing his breakfast in syrup. “I’m going to miss your cooking when we go home,” he stated, wasting no time in filling his mouth with pancakes. “And you, of course,” he quickly added, seeing my smirk. “How could I forget one of my two best friends in the world?”

Amelia giggled. “Don’t get too sappy on us. You know we love you. Otherwise, I don’t think we’d have been able to bare sitting by you for a five-hour flight.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault! You know I get chatty when I’m nervous!” Damien defended himself.

“You’re chatty all the time,” I quipped. “You’re down right obnoxious when you’re scared.”

Damien fake pouted. “You guys are mean.”

Amelia wrapped her arms around him. “Too late, you already admitted to loving us. Besides, we have a full month before we go home, so we don’t have to worry about that yet.”

Amelia and I sat down and dug into our breakfast, talking about fond memories as we ate. When we were finished, which took a considerable amount of time given Damien’s large appetite, he offered to wash the dishes, seeing as the apartment did not come with a dishwasher. As he scrubbed, Amelia and I chatted with him at the bar dividing the kitchen and living room.

“Would you two want to help me film some YouTube videos today?” I proposed. “If I could stockpile a couple videos I wouldn’t have to worry so much about falling behind in case something happens. It’s going to take a while to find a way to film comfortably, but this would give both me and my fans a chance to adjust to the new surroundings.”

They both nodded. “Great! I’ll go ahead and get dressed while you finish up.”

I dashed down the hall to my bedroom, throwing on a comfy pair of black jeans and a flannel. I brushed my hair and pulled it into a ponytail, as I did almost every day. Finally, I grabbed my camera, tripod, and ring-light from my room and brought it into the living room. I folded up the bed extension of the couch with help from Amelia, and set up my recording area against the wall so that we could be recorded sitting on the couch together. I pressed record on my camera, making sure it faced the right way, and sat down on the couch with Amelia and Damien.

“Hey, guys!” I greeted, looking directly into the camera. “As you know from my recent videos, I decided to move from my hometown in Ohio to California. This may seem like a shock, but I needed to change something in my life, and I’ve always felt like I could make my dreams come true in California, so here I am.”

Damien snickered. “You sound like a fairy tale.”

“Well, I did grow up on Disney movies,” I admitted.

“Now that I think about it,” Amelia chimed in, “that would explain your insane bonding skills with animals.”

“I always knew I was royalty.” I sat up straight with a poised air and a condescending sniff before returning to my natural slump, laughing. “That means you guys are my servants, right?.”

This made Amelia chuckle. “If that’s the case, you should fire Damien. I’m the one who’s being doing all the work around here.”

I looked straight at the camera. “I have to admit that that is true. Amelia is the one actually running the show, I just perform on camera. She’s been so much help.”

“Anyway,” I changed the subject, “today we will be showing off my new apartment and explain what our plans are for the next month or so.”

I quickly walked the viewers through the layout of the apartment, glancing over my bedroom and the guest room, not wanting to reveal too much personal information. I explained that Amelia and Damien had come with me not only to help me adjust, but that we would be going to a convention right outside the city next month and hoped to meet a couple YouTube bigshots such as Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, Muyskens, Lordminion777, and the Game Grumps, among others. The general idea was to hang out, have fun, and maybe pick up a few tips from those who actually knew what they were doing.

After I had finished explaining why I might be a little delayed with uploads for a week or so, I ended the video and went off to edit it. I finished around one o’clock and decided to wait until the next day to upload it, so as to make up for any future absences.

After dealing with YouTube, Amelia helped me sort all the dishes I had bought the previous day and organize them into cabinets. After we finished that, we moved onto the living room. We wiped down all surface areas with disinfectant wipes, vacuumed the floor, and opened the blinds to let in some natural sunlight. While we had been focusing on the kitchen and living room, Damien had been cleaning the guest room and bathroom in the same fashion, stopping for a short period to order pizza. Eventually, the only thing left was my room. Damien and Amelia helped me rid my room of dust and other nastiness while I folded my clothes and organized them into piles. I had yet to buy a dresser, planning to do that tomorrow, so I hung up as many clothes as I could in my closet and set the others aside in my suitcase.

The sun had set by the time we had finished our purge of the house, so we decided to reheat the remaining pizza as dinner and then go to bed. The next three days followed roughly the same schedule of waking, eating breakfast, cleaning, shopping for supplies, organizing, and going to bed, with a break for lunch at some point. I filmed a video every two days, focusing mostly on the development of the apartment, but also sharing our fun times through vlogs, such as when we searched for a dresser and area rug in Walmart at six in the morning on a Tuesday. Several days passed in the same way, until the weekend came at last and we took a well deserved break.


	5. The Results

I awoke Saturday morning to the pinging of my phone. I drowsily reached for my phone, flopping my hand until I could feel its cool screen. The phone continued to receive notifications for several more seconds, my hand wrapped loosely around it, holding it to my chest. I mustered enough energy to sit up in bed and glance at the new clock on my nightstand. The digital display read 12:07 pm, meaning I had slept just past noon. In my defense, I had been up until two in the morning planning my schedule for the week and had eventually collapsed, still in my clothes, and fallen asleep instantly. I checked my phone, which had finally stopped sounding the alert tones, and almost dropped it when I saw my notification screen. I tore out of bed and down the hall to the guest room to wake up Amelia, disregarding the cold wood floors, and then raced off to rouse Damien.

“Damien! Damien, get up! This is really important!” I yelled, shaking him by his shoulders as he lay asleep.

“Wha-What’s doing on?” he spluttered.

“I’ll explain,” I promised “Just get up. Amelia!” I shouted. “Hurry, this is of the utmost importance!”

Amelia came sliding down the hall, almost tripping on the couch, but managed to catch herself. “What’s going on?” she demanded. “What’s wrong?”

“Look,” I said, holding my phone out for them to see. Notification after notification popped up, all with the same message: ________ has subscribed to your YouTube channel.

“Oh, my god!” Amelia gasped. “What’s happening? Why all at once?”

“I don’t know,” I responded. “I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t understa-wait. No, no way,” I muttered.

“What?” demanded Amelia and Damien at the same time.

“Give me a second.” I opened my YouTube app on my phone and saw a new video from Jacksepticeye titles “Lottery Winners”. I hurriedly clicked on the video, ignoring each new subscriber notification that popped up, one after the other. I frantically skipped through most of the video, skimming to find the names of the winners. I was almost through the video, furiously thinking of any other explanation when I saw it, written in red lettering across the bottom of the screen: “Seventh place goes to AndisAsylum”.

I sat on the corner of the pull-out bed, stunned. Sick of waiting, Damien looked over my shoulder.

“What are you looking at? Is that a YouTube video? Why are you watching Jacksepiceye?” he questioned. Then he saw the title of the video. “No way,” he breathed. “Did you…?” he didn’t need to finish his question for me to know what he was asking. I silently nodded. “Oh, my god. Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Tell us what?” Amelia was growing impatient. “I swear, one of you better tell me what’s going on, right now, if you know what’s good for you.” She glared at each of us, as though she was afraid we didn’t believe her threats.

“I won the lottery,” I whispered.

“What lottery?”

“Jacksepticeye’s lottery. He chose me. I was recognized, and now all his fans are subscribing to me.” I checked my phone. “It’s been thirteen minutes since he uploaded his video and I’m already gained 137 subscribers.”

We sat in a stunned silence for a few seconds, not sure what to do. Eventually, Amelia spoke up. “Is this some sort of a joke? You said you didn’t enter.” I could hear the confusion and doubt in her voice.

“No, this is real. I didn’t tell you I entered because I honestly didn’t think I would win. It would be too much pressure and I didn’t want to disappoint you. I’m sorry I lied.” I looked at my feet, both ashamed of betraying my friends and stunned from actually winning.

Amelia simply stared at me for several seconds before closing the gap between us with a hug. “Sweetie, never apologize for doing what you feel is right,” she whispered in my ear. She withdrew enough to hug me from the side, addressing both Damien and me. “We need to celebrate. You were just recognized by one of the most famous YouTubers in the world, and we’re just standing here!” she exclaimed. “Come on! Let’s go get ice cream or something. You can vlog on the way to update your subscribers on what’s going on and greet your new ones.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” I admitted, smiling for the first time that morning, still unsettled by the events of the morning. My eyes started to water. “I know I haven’t been on YouTube for long, but this has been a dream of mine since high school. I always looked up to Jack, and the fact that _he_ picked _me_ out of thousands of applicants is just amazing. He believes in me, and not just as a faceless person in a crowd, but he has seen me and _believes_ in _me_.” By this point, tears were streaming down my face as I sobbed with happiness. Damien and Amelia moved to embrace me, and I remember never having been happier in my life.

“Come on, let’s get some ice cream,” Amelia suggested. I nodded and she led me to my car, after Damien brought my camera for me. I sat in the back while Amelia drove and Damien rode shotgun, trying to process how my entre world had just changed. I held up my camera and pressed record.

“Hey, guys, it’s Andi. You may have noticed, maybe not, but there has been an influx of new subscribers due to the lottery that Jacksepticeye hosted last week. The idea was that anyone could submit a video from their channel, he would look through and find his favorite channels, and then announce the fifteen he felt were the best or deserved the most credit. Somehow, I’m not sure how, the stars aligned and I came in seventh place, meaning I was Jack’s seventh favorite channel out of thousands.” Here my eyes started to tear up again. “Sorry, I’m crying like a baby,” I apologized. “Anyway, I wanted to welcome any new members of the family and explain to the rest of you what’s happening. And Jack, if you’re watching this, I want to dedicate this video to you and thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for what you have done for me. Thank you so much,” I sobbed. “I don’t deserve this. There are countless channels better than mine, countless _people_ better than me. But if you think that I deserve this, I must be doing something right.” I smiled, still crying. “Damien, Amelia, and I are going out for ice cream, so I guess I’ll see you guys later. How about this? I’ll do a livestream at three, so that we can catch up and answer any questions new subscribers have. Alright? Awesome, I’ll see you guys later. Bye! I love you!”

I ended the recording and streamed the video to my phone so I could have it uploaded by the time we even pulled into an ice cream shop. After cruising around for half an hour, somehow missing every icecream-serving restaurant, we found a Cold Stone Creamery. Amelia swerved into the parking lot and quickly found a spot. She turned around in her seat to look at me as Damien clambered out.

“Are you ready?” she asked, her tone laced with concern. For some reason I didn’t think she was talking about ice cream. “Do you need a moment? It’s okay if you do,” she added quickly.

I thought for a moment and shook my head, slowly moving to get out of the car. “I can do this. I’m still me, and this is still my life. Let’s celebrate,” I couldn’t help but grin, feeling a new surge of joyous energy flow through me with the realization that my whole world had changed for the better. “Come on, let’s get some ice cream before Damien eats it all,” I said, grabbing Amelia’s wrist and pulling her behind me.

“Hey! I heard that!” Damien shouted, from a couple yards away, already holding the doors open for us. Walking inside, we found the ice cream parlor completely empty, save for two employees, both of which looked surprised to have customers. I guessed that their main source of income came from high schoolers, with only a few customers until the time school let out for the day.

“Hello! How may I help you today?” asked one of the servers, a young girl who looked like she herself may still be in high school.

I smiled back. “Hi. I think we’re going to need a moment to decide what we want, if that’s okay.”

“Of course!” she responded cheerfully, turning to talk to her coworker, another girl of about the same age.

By the time I turned around to look at them, Amelia and Damien already had their eyes glued to the glass wall displaying all the different flavors of ice cream.

“So, what looks good to you guys? I’ll pay for this one,” I offered, already reaching into my pocket for my wallet.

As soon as the words had left my lips, Damien whirled around to face me. “What? Are you crazy? Do you really think we’re going to let you pay for us?” I started to protest but he cut me off. “This is the biggest day of your life! _I’m_ paying. My treat.” He fished around in his pocket for a second before pulling out his wallet. “And don’t even _think_ about paying me back,” he added, glaring at me, as though paying someone back was the most evil act imaginable.

I held up my hands in self-defense. “Okay, okay, if you insist.” I slowly put my wallet away, Damien still glaring as if it were a loaded gun. “And you never answered me. What flavor do you want?” We both turned back to review our options.

“I’m leaning towards sweet cream,” he responded after a few moments.

I nodded my head in acknowledge. “I’m going to go with French vanilla. What about you, Amelia?”

“Coffee,” she answered, not even looking up.

I snorted. “Why am I not surprised? You must drink at least a pot a day.” Her only response was a shrug.

“I need the caffeine. It’s what keeps me going. You’ve seen me without it, I look like a zombie.”

Damien nodded his head dramatically. “That’s a bit of an understatement. I think you tried to kill me the last time you ran out.”

Amelia scoffed. “Damien, sweetie, if I tried to kill you, you’d be dead.”

On that pleasant note, we moved towards the employees, ready to place our order. “One medium sweet cream, one medium coffee, and one large French vanilla,” Damien requested, looking at me pointedly, as though daring me to contradict him. Within ten minutes, we had our ice cream and were sitting at a table under the outdoor patio.

“You really didn’t have to do this,” I began, looking at Damien.

“Yes, we do, Andi,” Amelia cut in, not giving Damien a chance to talk. “This is a _huge_ deal, whether you realize it or not. I mean, this is how _Jacksepticeye himself_ started. If he can achieve his dream, why not you?” I started to explain that he had more experience than I ever would, but was hushed into silence. “Look, no matter what you say, everyone started at the beginning, even the pros like Jack and Markiplier. That fact that he personally chose _you_ , over literally _thousands_ of applications, shows how good you are at YouTube, and how much potential you have to grow.”

“You’re right,” I said, looking her directly in the eye. “Both of you are right. I don’t know why I feel so guilty, I mean, I have worked my ass off for this channel. It’s not my fault that others weren’t picked. I need to learn to be happy for myself.” I quickly glanced between my two best friends. “I’m really am sorry that I didn’t tell you that I entered the lottery. I didn’t want you to be disappointed if I didn’t win.” Amelia swiped her hand through the air, disregarding any apology.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, other than scaring the crap out of us this morning. I thought that you’d been stabbed or something, the way you were yelling.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled sheepishly, “I was in a bit of a frenzy. My family was right, I can never stop long enough to explain myself when I panic.” Suddenly, my eyes widened and my heart started beating faster. The others must have noticed, because Amelia moved closer to me, looking concerned.

“What is it, love? What’s wrong?” she inquired, placing a comforting hand on my knee.

“My family,” I spluttered. “They’re going to find out. Ali watches Jacksepticeye, and he’s sure to check out the winning channels.” I grabbed my head, frantically thinking of any way to explain to my older brother why I didn’t bother telling him that I had a YouTube channel, especially because I was apparently good enough to win the lottery.

“I have to call him,” I decided, reaching into my pocket for my phone, disregarding the countless “New Subscriber” messages that popped up. I scrolled through my contacts until I found the number listed under the name “Alastair”. I took a deep breath and pressed the dial button. The beep on the other end, which I usually found annoying, was suddenly agonizing to listen to. On the fifth ring, I heard the click signifying someone had answered the phone.

“Hello?” said a familiar voice.

“Hey, Ali,” I greeted, trying to keep my voice casual.

“Oh, Andi! How are you? How’s California so far? You were supposed to call me as soon as you moved in.”

“Yeah, sorry about that, I’ve been really busy trying to put my apartment together.” I sucked in a huge breath of air before continuing. “There’s actually something I wanted to tell you.”

“Yeah?” he asked. “What’s going on?”

“Well, you know that channel Jacksepticeye?”

Ali snorted. “Like I could forget. If I ever go deaf, I’m personally blaming him. Didn’t he just do a lottery-type thing? Something about giving shout-outs to under appreciated channels, or something.”

“Yeah, actually, he did. The winners were announced today. Just about two hours ago, in fact.”

“Really? I’ll have to check that out. They must be pretty good to warrant the attention of a YouTube star.”

“Yeah,” I laughed, with a hint of pride, “they must be pretty great. Anyway, there’s no easy way to say this, but I’ve had a YouTube channel for almost a year now.” I paused, waiting for his reaction. I wished he were there, so I could at least read his body language.

“What? Are you serious? Why didn’t you tell me?” He paused for a moment, clearly confused. “And what does this have to do with Jackseptic-oh,” I could hear the shock in his voice as he realized where I was going. “You don’t mean-You didn’t-Did you?”

“I did.”

“Oh, my god. Do Mom and Dad know?”

“No, and I would appreciate you not telling them yet.”

Silence, and then “Okay.”

“ _Are_ you okay?” I asked hesitantly. “You sound pretty stunned.”

“Yeah, I guess I’m just surprised. Now I _definitely_ have to watch that video.”

I rolled my eyes. “How about we video chat tonight so I can catch you up on what’s going on? And I’m hosting a livestream at three, if you want to watch. Damien and Amelia will be there too.”

“That sounds great. Listen, I have to get ready for work, because some of us have _real_ jobs and don’t get to be famous, but I’ll definitely be watching that livestream. Bye! Say hi to Amelia and Damien for me!”

“Bye, Ali! I love you!” I repeated back to him as I hung up.

“Well,” Damien started tentatively, “how did it go?”

I leaned back in my chair and couldn’t help but to laugh. I felt like a large weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

“I’m going to take a wild guess and say it went well,” Amelia answered for me.

“Damn right it did! I have the best brother in the world! He was a little surprised I didn’t tell him I made a channel, but he said he would watch the stream at three.”

“Awesome!” Amelia and Damien high fived before returning to their ice cream, which had started to melt. “What do we do now?” Amelia questioned through a mouthful of coffee ice cream.

“I’m going to try to contact Jack and thank him,” I decided. “I’ll tag him in the livestream and tell him how grateful I am.”

Damien’s eyes suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree. “Oh!” he exclaimed. “I have an idea! Mention that we’re going to the convention in a month. You’ll get to see him there, and might get to do some marketing, too.”

“Damien, you’re a genius!” I exclaimed.

“Why so surprised? I have great ideas all the time!” he exclaimed, mocking indignation.

We sat for another hour, long after we finished our ice cream, talking and letting it sink in that we would get to meet one of our biggest inspirations.

“I still can’t believe this is happening,” I said in awe, fiddling with my now useless straw. “A couple of hours ago was an obscure YouTuber, one among thousands, with barely a thousand subscribers. Now I have,” I paused, checking my phone, “20,386.” I paused, staring into my cup. “You, know, it’s weird. I’ve never had anything this amazing happen to me, and I’m thrilled, I really am, but I’m terrified too. What if they don’t like me? What if I let them down?” I looked at my friends for reassurance, trying to stifle the whirlwind of emotions confusing me.

“Of course you feel that way,” Amelia began. “Do you think you’re the only one who has doubts about yourself? Even the most loved people feel inadequate sometimes, even Markiplier does, but do you like him anyway?”

I stared at my hands, avoiding her gaze. “Yes,” I mumbled.

“Then what’s stopping them from loving you?” she prompted.

“Nothing.” I finally looked up to see my two best friends staring at me. Seeing the pride and love in their faces must have been what finally convinced me. I felt like Atlas, having the weight of the world lifted from my shoulders. “You guys are right,” I said decisively. “I’m not going to waste one of the best days of my life moping around because of some sort of ego problem. If I was good enough for my followers when there were a thousand of them, I’m good enough for a couple thousand more.”

“Yeah! You go girl!” Damien cheered energetically. “You show the world what you’re capable of!” For some reason, perhaps the sheer flamboyance of this display, Amelia and I burst out laughing, to the indignation of Damien. It the point that Amelia was gasping for breath and I started hiccupping, which only made us laugh more.

After we had finally calmed down, we threw away our Styrofoam cups and piled back into my car, this time with Amelia and me in the front and Damien in the back. I decided to vlog a bit more and whipped out my camera to record our drive around town, holding it so that Damien could be seen in the background. We talked about how I had discovered that I had won, with Amelia adding commentary and Damien recreating key moments, such as me shaking him to consciousness and the “hilarious” face I made when I read my notifications. I stopped filming a couple of blocks away from my apartment complex, not wanting to lead anyone to my exact location, and uploaded it via my phone.

After a couple of minutes, we arrived at my place and started setting up the 3 o’clock livestream, despite having another hour until it began, due to Amelia’s insistence on “preparing for all possible questions”. By the time she was satisfied with my answers, we only had twenty-three minutes left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not exactly what I had originally planned, but I think it turned out okay. Next weekend is the last weekend before exam week at my school, so it is possible that my posting will be delayed until Saturday instead of Friday (which is what I'm aiming for each week), but I do write throughout the week and this storyline has become my sort of stress relief tactic. I hope yu have enjoyed it so far, and I hope to see you next week!
> 
> P.S. Feel free to point out any mistakes in spelling or grammar (I know that they are there, I just can't find them after re-reading so many times.
> 
> P.P.S. Thank you so much to those of you who commented on the last chapter, it means the world to me! I hope you keep reading and that I can meet your expectations  
> -MM


	6. The Livestream

“Are you ready?” Amelia asked, standing behind my tripod, ready to press the record button on my camera. We had it hooked up to my laptop, which was ready to stream at any second.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I answered, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. I had already explained to my subscribers and posted on my affiliated social media pages (only Instagram and Snapchat at the time) about my livestream, so even if had changed my mind about the stream, it would be too late to cancel. Hell, I had even told my _brother_ about it. It was not a comforting thought, that thousands would be watching me live, without even the buffer that comes with editing, and deciding whether or not I was worth their time.

_Beep_

Too late now.

“Hey, guys, it’s Andi! Welcome to my first livestream. My friends,” Damien elbowed me in the ribs, “best friends,” I corrected, “are here with me today. If you’ve watched any of my recent videos, or some of my older ones, you might remember them. This is Damien and this is Amelia,” I explained, gesturing to each in turn, as Amelia took a seat next to me.

“Hello,” she greeted, smiling and waving at the camera. Damien simply waved, for once not talking.

“The idea of this livestream is that you guys can ask questions. As you may know, I won Jacksepiceye’s lottery a few hours ago, meaning that I got a shout-out in one of his videos. He should be uploading his second video of the day right about now, which is one reason why I decided to stream at this time. I’m hoping that he’ll check in or something and watch this so I can thank him for all that he’s done for me. That is also where I got the name for the stream (Livestream: Q&A, Thank You Jacksepticeye),”  I added.

Damien interrupted. “Seriously, man, if you’re watching this, thank you so much. I’ve never seen her this happy, she was crying and everything.”

“Oh, shut up!” I smacked his arm playfully. “Alright, I have to admit that that’s true. I was crying like a baby, but I think I deserve that. Anyway, I have a surprise for you guys. I was planning on waiting until later to tell you, but now seems as good a time as ever, given the events of this morning. Contrary to popular belief, Amelia and Damien are not only here because they enjoy the pleasure of my company,” Damien rolled his eyes, “which I’m sure they do,” I added with a pointed look in his direction. “They also came because we have tickets to go to a convention for YouTubers hosted near here in less than a month. Originally, we had planned to go to a few panels, do some social networking, and maybe watch Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, and the Game Grumps’ shows, but now I’m hoping to meet Jack in person. I know that it is unlikely, but I wanted to keep you guys updated, and hey, who knows, maybe he’s watching this right now. That is the wonder of the internet, you never know who’s watching.”

“That sounded a bit creepy,” Amelia muttered.

“Yeah, I just realized that. Another wonder of livestreaming: you can never take back what you say,” I laughed. “Anyway, we’ll be opening up the comments in just a minute so you guys can ask questions. We’ll also be using Twitter so we don’t miss anything. I actually made a Twitter account just for this, which I guess I’ll be using now that I am climbing the charts to being a “popular” channel. If you have a Twitter account and want to ask a question, please use the hashtag #AskAndi. If you don’t have a Twitter account and still want to ask a question, you can do it in the comments of this video, but we may not see it, depending on how many comments there are.”

Damien got up from the couch and walked towards my laptop, ready to open the comment section. “Prepare for complete chaos in three, two, one,” he counted down, opening the floodgates to the realm of the internet. While he did that, I opened Twitter on my phone, discovering that there had already been 748 questions tagged #AskAndi.

“Holy crap!” I exclaimed, quickly showing my friends and then the camera the sheer number of responses. I scrolled through a couple Tweets, looking for a good one to answer. “I found one! ‘How old are you?’ I am currently twenty-two. ‘When is your birthday?’ May 16.” I handed the phone to Amelia so she could read questions while I answered.

“What is your favorite color?”

“I feel like I’m taking a personality test,” I chuckled, before answering. “Silver.”

“Cats or dogs?” Damien snorted, knowing that I had as many as five cats at once as a kid and that my kitties were my babies.

“Both, though I’m inclined to cats. I grew up with cats, but I’m considering getting a dog in a few months if I think I can handle the extra responsibility.”

Amelia smirked. “Favorite YouTuber? Proceed carefully, Andi. You _are_ being sponsored here.”

I laughed nervously. “I wouldn’t say I’m being _sponsored_ , per say, but my favorites are definitely Markiplier and Jacksepticeye. I’ve also been watching a lot of Game Grumps recently, mostly with my brother, Ali, who said he would be watching this now. I’m not sure if he actually is, though.”

“Hey, Alastair,” Damien said, “if you’re watching this, text Andi.”

We waited for a few seconds before we heard a ding. I checked my messaging app to find a text from Ali and read the message out loud. “Don’t tell me what to do,” I announced, both to my friends and the camera, sending the two on either side of me into a fit of giggles. “Sorry, Ali. Damien made me do it,” I explained, passing the focus onto him.

“I guess that answers the next question of whether or not you have siblings,” Amelia suggested after her giggles had subsided. “Next up is your favorite video game.”

“Assassins Creed,” I responded quickly, not even needing to think about it. “Particularly Black Flag. My second favorite is the Portal franchise.”

Amelia scrolled for a couple seconds, trying to find a good one not already answered. “’Do you have any fanart, and if not, can I draw some?’ Aww, that’s cute,” she commented.

I grinned sheepishly. “No, I don’t have any fanart, at least not any that I know of. Up until a couple hours ago, my channel was relatively unpopular and no one really took enough interest to spend so much time drawing something for me. If you would want to draw something, I’d love that. That goes for all of you,” I clarified, gesturing towards the camera. “I’d love to have people drawing art for my channel. If you do, _please_ send it to me. I might even post it, if that’s okay with you, of course.”

“’What are your plans for this channel?’ That’s a tough one,” Amelia commented. “Have fun with that.”

I thought for a couple of seconds. “Um, I’m not really sure. I’m guessing you’ve watched at least a few of my videos if you’re taking the time to comment,” I started, addressing the author of the question, “so you’ve probably noticed that I do mostly gaming videos. I’ve recently been considering making a separate channel just for vlogs, so definitely let me know if you’d be interested in seeing that, but I don’t really have a plan per se, I just like doing what makes me happy, and if I can help others be happy, I’ll try. Hopefully, I’ll make a few friends outside of these two soon,” I hugged Damien and Amelia, “and will be able to do a couple challenges or collabs with them, but as of now I’m going to stick with primarily Let’s Plays and some skits every so often.” I sighed. “How about we switch to answering some questions off of YouTube,” I suggested, looking between my friends. Damien pulled out his phone and started reading the comments, most of which consisted of congratulations for winning the lottery.

After scrolling for several minutes, Damien stopped, smirking. Without ever taking his eyes off the phone, he read “’Do you have a boyfriend?’ Given you didn’t bother telling us that you even entered the lottery to begin with, I would like to make sure I’m right as well. So? Do you have a boyfriend?”

I rolled my eyes at him before directing my gaze back towards the camera. “No, I do not a boyfriend, or a girlfriend for that matter. No one ever seems to ask about having a girlfriend, do they?”

“Yeah, Andi, we get it, you’re not straight. Let’s move on,” Amelia urged, rolling her eyes.

However, after her seemingly innocent comment about me not being straight, the comment section flooded with people asking if I was gay. After fifteen minutes of avoiding answering any of the questions, I decided to put an end to it.

“Look, guys,” I rubbed my eyes with my sleeve. “I am really lacking the mental and emotional strength to go into this right now, so can we drop it? Please? I promise I talk about it at some point, but I’ve had enough mental stress today, and I think I deserve the right to postpone that talk.” Thankfully, most people seemed to get it, though some continued interrogating me, and the topic switched.

“’Where did you move from?’” Damien read from the YouTube comments, while Amelia skimmed Twitter.

“Ohio. I, _we_ ,” I laughed, including my friends, “grew up in an area of suburbs near Kettering. I didn’t want to tell you that while I lived there because I didn’t want to compromise my safety. Not that I think any of you would try to stalk me or anything,” I clarified quickly, laughing at myself.

Damien spoke up. “We actually grew up pretty close to Markiplier. Of course, we discovered his channel a couple of months _after_ he moved to California. No one important ever stays in Ohio,” he grumbled.

“It’s weird to think that we may have passed him at some point, maybe in Walmart or Hot Topic, and not realized who he would become,” Amelia added. “Now we’re going out of our way to meet him at a convention. Life is weird.” Damien and I nodded in agreement.

“You know the weirdest and thing about livestreams?” Damien asked. “You never know who’s watching. Like, Malia Obama could be watching this from her dorm room, or Johnny Depp could be showing this to his family. Maybe Jacksepticeye and Markiplier are watching us, right now, and we don’t even know it. It’s kind of creepy if you think about it,” he added, tilting his head, obviously contemplating who exactly we were being broadcast to.

“Now you’ve got me thinking. I wonder just how many people are watching this now,” Amelia pondered, pulling out her phone to check. “Holy! Over five thousand people are watching!” she gaped, staring at the camera, as if she could see each individual person in the reflection of the lense if she tried hard enough. She started to wave at them. “Hello, thousands of people! I never realized just how large of a number five thousand is,” she mumbled, looking to Damien and me for reassurance, which only made us laugh.

After deliberating for several minutes about how amazing it was to be suddenly thrust into the spotlight of the world, we turned back to our initial goal of answering questions. We continued through the generic questions (favorite ice cream, favorite animal, etc.), before getting into more complex or bizarre quieries.

“If you had to lose a limb, which would you choose?”

I thought for a moment, considering my options before laughing. “In a perfect world, I’d keep all my limbs, but I understand that accidents happen. I don’t think I’ll ever have to choose a limb to be amputated, but if that oddly specific scenario ever comes up, I’d rather lose my left arm. It just seems like it would be the easiest to function without, y’know? I’m right handed, so I obviously need my right arm, and I feel like it would hurt a lot to have to walk on a prosthetic leg with just a stump, so I need my legs. I don’t know,” I shrugged in defeat. “Let’s just hope that I never need to cut off a limb.”

“You just keep getting weirder and weirder,” Damien commented, looking at his lap, eyes wide. “We’re learning all sorts of things about you today.”

“Come on,” I intervened, poking Amelia with my elbow. “Let’s get through a couple more.”

“’If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?’” Amelia read from her phone.

“Probably shapeshifting. I mean, the possibilities would be endless. Want to prank someone? Check. Want to infiltrate a foreign nation’s government? Easy.”

Damien whistled. “Well, that escalated quickly.”

“Think about it,” I urged. “Even if it were only used for mundane life, you could change your hair color, body type, gender, whatever, whenever you like. You could be a freakin’ dragon for crying out loud! Or Beyoncé! There are no ends to what you could do, as long as you have an imagination.”

Damien simply stared at me before lowering his head in defeat. “Fine, I admit it, you’ve convinced me. Now I want to be able to turn into Beyoncé at will.”

“Don’t we all?” Amelia questioned wistfully. “Next up ‘What is your worst fear?’ Wow. We’re crossing some boundaries today. I’m not sure even I know the answer to this.”

“Neither do I,” I agreed, shaking my head. “I don’t know, probably being forgotten by the world, with nothing to remember me by. Like, I’m okay with the thought of dying, but I’m terrified of dying too young, and not making a meaningful difference in the world. Does that make sense?” I turned to my friends for help.

“Clear as crystal,” Damien confirmed. He glanced at his watch. “Woah, it’s almost six!” he exclaimed. “That means we’ve been streaming for three hours.”

“No way,” Amelia replied, looking at her own watch to double-check. “Dang. He’s right.”

“As if I could be wrong about the time,” Damien scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“Calm down,” I intervened. “I guess we should probably end the stream now. I didn’t mean for it to go this long.” I smiled sheepishly at the camera, as though apologizing for keeping them. I moved out of the eye of the camera and directed Damien as to how to end the stream, while Amelia summed up the content of the video.

“So, yeah, now you know a bit more about Andi, and hopefully you realize how amazing she is,” I heard her finish as I walked over to sit back down on the couch. I hugged her and thanked for her support before directing my attention at the camera once more.

“Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. Thank you, as always, to the members of the AndisAsylum family, and a warm welcome to all newcomers. I hope that you have enjoyed this video and, as always, I will see all you soon, in an all new video! Later ladies and laddies!” I called, pointing directly at my camera as the red light indicating it was recording slowly went out.

I turned to my friends, still smiling. I had made it through my first video as a semi-recognized YouTube star, and had finally come clean to at least one person in my family. _It may not be perfect, but it’s a start_ , I thought to myself, standing up for the first time in three hours. I stretched, yawning.

“Do you guys want to order a pizza or something?” I asked, spinning on my heels to look down on my friends, almost losing my balance in the process. Amelia nodded vigorously while Damien shrugged, closing his eyes and resting his head on Amelia’s shoulder.

“Whatever you want, boss,” he murmured without opening his eyes.

I called a nearby pizza place I had noticed while we were driving around earlier, and asked for two large pepperoni pizzas to be delivered to my apartment.

I flopped down onto the couch I has already spent so much time with. “Do you guys want to watch Netflix until the guy gets here?” I proposed.

“Sure,” Amelia answered, cuddling up with a blanket. “What do you have in mind?” Damien snorted.

“Breaking Bad.” he rolled his eyes. “ _Obviously._ Unless you can think of a better show? _”_ he challenged.

“Breaking Bad it is.” I opened the Netflix app on my TV and started streaming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry I didn't get to upload this on schedule. I actually had it completely typed out, but I passed out on my couch before I could upload it (sleep deprivation is a bitch). Hopefully it was worth the wait and no one was disappointed. As usual, if you find any spelling/grammar errors, please bring them to my attention, and I will see you in the next chapter!
> 
>  
> 
> EDIT  
> Okay, I was going through my files and found something. A couple weeks ago, I had some spare time and was working ahead on this story, but somehow skipped publishing a chapter. I really don't know how this could have happened, but I went back and added it, in the correct order, on December 17. It was Chapter 4 that was cut out, in case you want to go back and read it. It is not essential to the plot, it just adds some characterization. I'm really sorry and have no idea how I messed this up.


	7. The Call

Forty minutes later, at about seven o’clock, we were happily fed and watching the most infuriating show to ever exist, Breaking Bad. As we watched, I played around on my phone, having seen it before, pausing to re-watch key scenes, such as Walt’s diagnosis and the famous “Cow house” line. As the credits rolled, I decided to go through the comments on the livestream, writing down questions to address in later videos as I went. There were a couple complaining about how other channels should have won the lottery, but for the most part they were sweet and encouraging.

After doing that for about twenty minutes, I switched to Twitter to monitor my newly-made account. To my surprise, I had already gained a couple thousand followers, some of which had taken it upon themselves to tweet about my channel and tag famous YouTubers, including Pewdiepie, Dan and Phil, Markipilier, the Game Grumps, and, of course, Jacksepticeye.

“Hey, guys,” I beckoned to my friends, “check this out.” They both moved closer towards me to read over my shoulder.

“’@AndisAsylum is YouTube’s rising star,’” Damien read. “’@Markiplier and @AndisAsylum need to do a collab NOW,’” he continued.

“’Now I have THREE great YouTubers I can meet at the con,’” Amelia contributed in. “’@Markiplier @AndisAsylum and @Jacsepticeye’. Holy crap, Andi! They love you!” She clapped me on the back, a grin splitting her face. “This is great! You’re really getting out there, and you can meet even more people at the convention. In fact, it’s probably about time you start preparing for that.” She looked at me pointedly. “We only have, what, three weeks left?”

“Two and a half,” Damien chimed in, not looking up from my phone, which he had continued scrolling through. “What? I remember things,” he defended himself, noticing our questioning gazes.

“You’re right,” I agreed. “I’m just not sure what I’m preparing _for_ , let alone what I can do to prepare myself.” I sighed. “I guess this is as good as I’m going to get. I mean, how bad can it be? I’m still relatively unknown, so it’s possible that only a few people will recognize me anyway, and I’m not going to change who I am just to impress people.”

“And you shouldn’t feel pressured to,” Damien assured.

“I’ll take the day off to focus on planning for my YouTube channel. Would you guys mind running out to grab some more food items at some point? Just the usual eggs, bread, milk, etc.” I asked, stretching as I stood up.

“Sure, no problem,” Damien answered.

“Awesome. I’m going to go shower, so you guys can keep watching or something,” I waved in the direction of the TV, “or you could go out. I don’t mind, it’s not like you’re my prisoners or anything.”

“Okay,” Damien replied, returning to watching _Breaking Bad._

I walked down the hall to my room, gathering another flannel and a pair of jeans and heading off to the bathroom. As I waited for the water to heat up, I made a mental note to go shopping for clothes once I had build up enough money. I had been stockpiling for almost a year to afford the move, and had sold many of my possessions to fill out any missing corners, though I needed to find a job soon, or risk going bankrupt. I considered my options as the hot water washed over me, scrubbing away all the nastiness that had accumulated in the past two days. I had been considering editing videos for other YouTubers for a while, not that my editing skills were particularly amazing. _Well,_ I thought. _I could always go for the standard waitress job_. I couldn’t help but wrinkle my nose at the idea of creepy dudes hitting on me. _Nope. My personality is way too strong for that_. I sighed in defeat. _I’ll find something. I have to._

As I reluctantly left the comforting warmth of the shower, I decided I might as well look around for jobs in the area. I quickly dressed and brushed my hair, not bothering to do anything with it. I flopped onto my bed and laid there for a few minutes, realizing how much my life had changed in the short time since I had moved. I had been “discovered” on YouTube, moved across the country from my family, and forced myself into an are in which I knew no one and needed to form new social bonds.

“Why did I do this?” I whined into my pillow. “What if I fail? I’d be such a disappointment.” I couldn’t help but cringe at the thought of having to move all the way back to Ohio in disgrace and living with my parents in my twenties.

Thankfully, my self-doubt was cut off by a chime from my phone, recognizing the tone as an email notification. I opened the mail app on my phone, scrolling through all the junk mail to find whatever had triggered the alert. After deleting several threads of spam, I found an email requesting a chat on Google Hangouts. I clicked the button accepting the invitation, expecting it to be from one of my friends from back in Ohio, and grabbed my laptop from my nightstand to open a window in the widget app. As soon as I had opened the window, a notification popped up from “Seán”.

 _That’s weird,_ I thought to myself. _I don’t remember knowing someone named Seán._ I got up and went down the hall to the living room to ask Amelia and Damien, but they weren’t there. I figured that they had gone out to pick up the groceries I had requested and went back to my room. I opened the chat and read the message from “Seán”.

 **S:** _Hello_. Huh. Seemed simple enough, yet oddly vague. Most people would identify themselves in online interactions.

 **A:** _Sorry, but do I know you?_ I asked hesitantly, hoping I wouldn’t offend whoever it was.

 **S:** _Not really._ Now I was definitely suspicious, preparing myself to question him further when a second message came through.

 **S:** _It’s Jack, from Jacksepticeye_

 _Bullcrap,_ was my first thought. _This has to be some king of joke_. _There’s no way the real Jacksepticeye would contact me personally. No one is that lucky._

 **A:** _Prove it. What’s my last name?_ I smirked triumphantly. There was _no way_ he could know my last name. I’d made sure to be careful about what I let people online know about me, in order to protect myself.

 **S:** _Cahoon_. My smirk dropped immediately. _How did he know that? I was so careful!_

 **A:** _How do you know that?_ I demanded, angrily punching the keys of my computer.

 **S:** _It said so in the email address you used to submit your video clip._ I had to admit that that _did_ make sense.

 **A:** _Okay, if you’re really Jacksepticeye, why don’t you videochat me and prove it?_ I felt the smirk return to my face. This was something impossible to fake. I sat, waiting for some half-baked excuse as to why he couldn’t videochat at the moment.

 **S:** _Okay_. My jaw dropped open as the familiar display popped up and I heard the ringtone signifying the invitation to a videochat. I debated for a moment about whether or not I should accept before taking a big breath and clicking “accept”.

There were many things I were expecting. A bunch of teenage boys hanging out trying to prank me, drunk college students, or a friend from Ohio pulling my leg. Despite the many possibilities I had considered, I did not expect to see the smiling face of an Irishman with green hair.

“ _Hello!”_ he exclaimed through the built-in webcam.

“Um, hi, I guess,” I stumbled through my words, not sure what was happening. Through my dazement, I noticed the gleam of mischief in his eyes.

“ _You really didn’t think it was me, did you?”_ he asked, laughing. “ _I can’t say I blame you. I’ve been pranked my fair share of times. You are alright, aren’t you?”_ he questioned gently. “ _I didn’t give you a heart attack, did I?”_ He looked genuinely concerned, as though he truly thought he might have shocked me to a dangerous degree.

“Um, no. I-I’m fine,” I spluttered, shuffling around, suddenly uncomfortably aware that I was videochatting one of the top YouTubers in the world from my bedroom. “I’m just surprised is all. If you don’t mind me asking, what are you doing?”

 _“You mean by contacting you?”_ I nodded hesitantly. “ _Well_ ,” he cleared his throat. “ _I noticed how many people were tagging us together in Twitter after your livestream- which was very good, by the way- and thought we might as well meet face to face_.” He laughed. “ _Or screen to screen, I should say.”_

“You watched my livestream?” I don’t know why, but that’s the detail that stuck out to me.

 _“Yeah, I mean, I chose your channel for a reason_ ,” here my heart skipped a beat. “ _I enjoy your videos,_ ” he continued. “ _They really show you as a human, not just an ego used on the internet.”_ His eyes twinkled as he smirked. _“Not that there’s anything wrong with alter egos, of course_.”

“Of course,” I repeated. “Especially if they’re cute and Irish, right?” He laughed, the sound filling my room, making me laugh too. Whenever we stopped laughing, we’d look at each other and burst into another fit of giggles, taking us several minutes to calm down.

“ _My favorite part of your livestream was when you mentioned going to the convention next month and how much you’re looking forward to meeting me_ ,” he teased, with an edge of sincerity.

“Well, what can I say,” I responded. “You can only listen to someone’s loud voice for so long before they start to grow on you. And it’s not just me, my friends Damien and Amelia almost passed out when I told them I got us tickets.”  
“ _Well_ ,” he said. “ _I can’t wait to meet them. You’ll have to bring them sometime when we hang out.”_

“Yeah, I will.” I smiled. Then my brain registered what he had just said. “Wait, what? You said ‘when we hang out’.

He grinned, clearly enjoying my confusion and shock. “ _I know. Like I said earlier, I like you, and you seem like a fun person. I’m going to be staying with Mark-you know Mark, right? Markiplier_?” he prompted.

I rolled my eyes. “Of course I know Markiplier! What kind of gaming YouTuber would I be if I didn’t know Markiplier?”

“ _Okay, okay, I get it, sorry_ ,” he raised his hands in a calming manner. _“Anyway, I’m going to be staying with Mark for a week or two around the time of the convention. Why don’t we meet up? You live fairly close to him, if I remember the layout of California correctly, and I think you two would get along well.” He raised his eyebrows and smiled hopefully, silently begging me to agree to meet him in person_.

“Alright, but I have one condition,” I insisted, trying not to laugh at his cute little confused head tilt.

 _“Shoot_.”

“I get to take a picture of us together to show my brother.” I know that Ali would kill me if I told him that I had met one of his YouTube idols in person and that I had no proof.

Seán grinned. “ _Sounds fair enough_.” He picked up his phone and started scrolling through it. “ _It looks like I’ll be arriving in Cali in two weeks, on Wednesday, with the convention the Saturday and Sunday of the next week, and then I’ll go home on Wednesday of the next week. So_ ,” he concluded, “ _I’ll be in California for two full weeks. Surely that’ll be enough time for us to meet up.”_

I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of really getting to know him. “That’s sounds great,” I confirmed. “Damien and Amelia won’t believe me when I tell them about this, or that you contacted me at all.”

 _“Aren’t they staying with you? Feel free to bring them in_ ,” Seán offered.

“No, they’re out getting groceries.” Suddenly, I perked up “Hey, I just had an idea. This may be crazy, and feel free to say no, but the three of us have iPhones. If you have one too, I could call them on the pretense of checking their list, and then add you to the call. I could even record their reactions as they realize they’re talking to the famous Jacksepticeye in the middle of Walmart.” I started giggling at the mere thought of their shocked reactions.

“ _That actually sounds really fun_ ,” he said. “ _Alright, I’ll do it. I should probably give you my number or email so you can add me to the call.”_

“Oh, yeah, I had forgotten about that. If you don’t feel comfortable giving out your contact information, I completely understand,” I began, before being cut off by Seán.

 _“Nonsense, besides, I want you to contact me, remember?_” he questioned jokingly. “ _It’ll be kind of difficult to arrange a meet up if you don’t know how to contact me_.”

“You’re right,” I agreed sheepishly. He read me his number as I inputted it into my contacts app. Before I saved it, I realized that I didn’t know which name I should input it under. “Um, should I put it in under Seán or Jack?” I asked nervously.

He shrugged in response. “ _Either one. It doesn’t really matter to me.”  
_ “Seán it is,” I decided, finishing the contact and pressing save. “Are you ready?” I asked. He nodded. “Okay. We’d better end this videochat, but I guess I’ll see you in a minute.” I reached to end the chat before I heard Seán’s voice.

 _“Hey, Andi_ ,” he started.

“Yes?” I asked, rather than responded

He grinned. “ _Make sure to video their reactions. I’m going to want a copy of this.”_

“Sure thing.” I smiled and hung up. I set my phone screen to record and paused for a second to gather my thoughts before opening the FaceTime app and dialing both Damien and Amelia’s numbers. The ringing tone sounded for several seconds before Amelia picked up, followed shortly by Damien.

“ _Hey, man, what’s up?_ ” Amelia greeted. “ _Did you think of something to add to the list?”_

“Yes, actually,” I answered. “Just let me find it. I saved a note of it. How has the shopping been going?” I asked to keep them distracted.

 _“As well as any shopping trip to Walmart can go on a weekend_ ,” Damien answered. I quickly clicked on Seán’s contact name while he talked and waited silently for him to pick up.

As the tone rang silently, Amelia started talking again. _“They’re having a sale on ice cream, five dollars for two tubs, should I get some or…_ ” she trailed off as she glanced at the screen to see not only Damien and me, but a third grinning man with pale skin and green hair. _“Damien_ ,” she started, attempting to grab his attention as he continued shopping, oblivious to the situation. “ _Damien_ ,” she repeated.

“ _I’m going to get the ice cream_ ,” he was saying, completely oblivious to the situation. _“This deal is too good to pass up, and we’ve only had ice cream once since we got here, and that was to celebrate. What flavors do you guys want? Coffee for Amelia, obviously, Superman for me, vanilla to round us out, and done more. What do you want Andi? I know you like that triple chocolate stuff, but it’s really not that good-“_

 _“I actually quite like triple chocolate_ ,” chimed in an Irish- accented voice.

Damien froze and started to turn towards his phone slowly. “ _Andi, since when are you Irish?”_ Seán and I burst out laughing at the face he made, like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. After we finished laughing, which took quite a while, there was silence, as the two on the receiving end of the prank didn’t yet know how to respond. Naturally, I chose this moment to be witty.

“Oh, did I forget to introduce you to my friend, Seán?” I was met only with looks of confusion. “Yeah, Seán and I go way back. We’ve known each other for what? Half an hour now?”  
My partner in crime smirked. “ _That sounds about right_.” After another pause of shock, Damien finally spoke.

_“Are you Jacksepticeye?”_

_“Yes, last time I checked, that was me,”_ Seán joked.

Amelia was still shocked into silence, finally murmuring “ _He’s so pretty,”_ under her breathe.

“ _Thank you,_ ” Seán chuckled, _“but I think you’ll like me even better in person.”_ Now it was my turn to explain.

“Seán contacted me via Google Hangouts and asked me to meet him in person when he comes to California for the convention.” This just made Damien gape more.

“I swear to god, if I wasn’t in Walmart right now, I would be yelling so much,” he stated.

“I can believe it. You tend to yell when you get excited,” I reminded him, while Amelia nodded, seeming to come out of her stupor, at least a little.

“ _Does this mean you two will hang out a lot?_ ” Amelia asked quietly, obviously shy in the current situation.

 _“I wouldn’t say a lot, but probably whenever possible, depending on how our first face to face meeting goes_ ,” Seán answered, quickly tacking onto the end “ _Not that there’s any doubt in my mind about how well we’ll get along.”_

Damien just had to smart off. _“I don’t know, she can be pretty annoying. I wouldn’t blame you if you ditched her after a week.”_

“You’re only saying that because you know I can’t smack you,” I retorted.

 _“Don’t worry, I got this one,”_ Amelia volunteered, whacking Damien on the arm.

 _“Ow! Okay, okay, I get it, no need for violence!”_ he protested.

 _“I don’t know, you did kinda deserve that,”_ Seán chimed in.

“Thank you, at least _someone_ around here other than Amelia understands.” I tried my best to look pointedly at Damien, given we were sharing a screen.

 _“So, Jack, when will you be arriving in California?”_ Damien asked in an attempt to change the subject.

_“Just two weeks from Wednesday. I’ll be staying with Mark for two weeks before flying back to Ireland.”_

_“When you say you’ll be staying with ‘Mark’, do you mean…..”_ Amelia trailed off, still unsure of herself.

 _“Markiplier?_ Seán suggested, smiling. _“Yeah, but we just call him Mark. I’m sure that he and Andi will be on first name basis soon enough anyway.”_

Being the mature adult he is, Damien just _had_ to start ooing like a middle schooler who just saw someone get called out in front of the class.

“Oh, shut up,” I huffed, refusing to let him embarrass me in front of Seán.

“ _Whatever,_ ” he responded. “ _I need to get back to shopping anyway, before all the ice cream melts.”_

“Okay, but buy some triple chocolate chunk.”

“ _Nerd_ ,” he scoffed.

“Loser,” I retorted.

_“See you at home, Andi. Bye Jack, it was nice meeting you.”_

_“Bye Jack,”_ Amelia repeated more softly in the background.

 _“You too Damien and Amelia. Hopefully I’ll get to meet you in person soon, but I’ll definitely see you at the convention, at least.”_ Seán waved at the camera. _“Bye!”_ Damien and Amelia’s faces disappeared from the screen, leaving only me and Seán once again.

 _“They seem nice,_ ” Seán commented.

“They really are. They’re the best friends I could ever ask for.” I smiled at him gratefully. “Thank you so much for talking to them, it means the world to them. Damien has always admired you, and I think it’s pretty clear that you left Amelia in awe,” I laughed at the way my normally outgoing friend was suddenly subdued.

_“It’s no problem. I like to talk to, well, I don’t want to call them fans, that makes me sound like a pretentious arsehole. I truly love meeting them and getting to know them as people, not just a faceless blur, y’know? They’re not one being, they’re over a million people. Just normal people, like you and me, and for some reason they chose me as a special one.”_

“Like you did to me,” I murmured.

He seemed surprised at the comparison. _“I never thought about it like that, but yes. You’re getting the same help I got a couple years ago, but you’re doing much better than I did. I guess one of the reasons I took a liking to you was because you seem to understand that these are actual people, not just toys that you can neglect and do with as you please. You seem capable of the responsibilities that come with the job, not just the perks, and you seem to actually want to take on the responsibility. That’s rare.”_

“Thank you. I really don’t know what to say, other than thank you, and that I can’t wait to meet you in person.”

Seán chuckled. “ _Me too.”_

I glanced at the clock on my nightstand. “I don’t want to keep you, you probably need to work, and we’ve been talking for almost an hour and a half now.”

“ _Holy shite! You’re right, I need to go. Listen, why don’t we figure out when we can meet in the next two weeks? You can text or call me anytime.”_

I laughed. “I never thought I’d ever hear Jacksepticeye tell me that. Sure, I'll call you. I haven’t been out much since the move, so this can be our chance to explore the city together.”

 _“That sounds great! It’s a date! I’ll talk to you soon, so don’t be a stranger, you hear?_ ” I nodded. _“Good. I’m going to go upload my twelve o’clock video, feel free to watch it if you want, and I’ll see you soon.”_

I grinned. “Okay. Bye Seán!”

He waved at the camera. _“Bye Andi!”_ I pressed the red “End Call” button and leaned back on my bed, completely stretched out like a sunbathing cat.

After a few minutes of lying there, I decided to get some cereal. I had just reached the kitchen and had poured my Lucky Charms into a bowl, laughing at the idea of a Leprechaun themed cereal brand after meeting the worlds top Irish YouTuber, when I realized that we were out of milk. _I really need to get more sleep_ , I thought, laughing at my forgetfulness. _At least they’ll be back soon with milk. And icecream._ I sat down on the couch with my laptop and my dry bowl of cereal to munch on as I looked for job openings in the area. Unfortunately, there were no openings for _real_ jobs, mostly just unpaid internships and manual labor, which I was not cut out for. _If only there was an ASL interpreting business nearby,_ I groaned mentally.

 _Screw it, I’m going back to the olden days of jobs._ I pulled up the website of every babysitting and petsitting business I knew of and registered for each. It wasn’t much, but it could get me by until I found a real job, or at least slow my descent into debt. After that, I searched for online jobs offering subbing videos for the Deaf or hard of hearing, and then translating jobs for English, Italian, and Spanish speakers. _See? This is the benefits of learning so many languages._ I was not particularly good at Spanish, but was fairly fluent in Italian and ASL, meaning I had a slight edge over competing translators.

Right as I finished my online job hunt, I hear the sound of keys turning in the lock of my door. I stood up from my place on the couch and went to help unload groceries. As I reached to take a bag out of Amelia’s full arms she smacked me on the shoulder.

“How could you do that?” she exclaimed. “How could you just take me off guard like that with meeting someone I _idolize_? I could have made a fool of myself, and it would be your fault.” She dropped the bags she was carrying on the kitchen table, still grumbling, though I could tell she wasn’t really as mad as she let on.

I chuckled, hugging her from behind. “Aw, don’t worry, love. He thought you were charming, trust me.”

“Oh, yeah?” she challenged. “And how do you know that?” She turned towards me, folding her arms across her chest stubbornly.

“He told me.” I smirked at her doubtful, yet hopeful expression.

“Don’t joke about this,” she warned.

“I swear, I’m not.” I crossed my heart just to prove a point. “He said that he really liked you and that he can’t wait to meet you in person.” Amelia seemed to relax, her tense shoulders sinking with relief.

“Did he really?” she asked, needing to be absolutely sure.

“Yes,” I confirmed, hugging her again. “How could anyone not like you? You’re amazing.”

Damien emerged from the hallway leading to the door of my apartment, large arms full of groceries, and made a beeline for the kitchen table. After setting each bag down, we began to stock the cabinets and fridge with food, modifying the layout of the kitchen in the process in an attempt to make it easier to access. We didn’t talk much about Seán, though I know we were all thinking about him. I guess we all needed time to process what had happened, and completing the mindless task seemed to give us an opportunity to think things through, without the need to talk.

Soon enough, we ran out of things to put away, so I told them that I was planning on watching Seán regular noon upload. They seemed interested, so we sat down to watch the video together, a revamp of his classic Happy Wheels series. As he went through his normal introduction, I thought about how weird it was that in a matter of hours he had gone from Jacksepticeye, one of the top YouTubers in the world, to Seán, a contact in my phone who I had planned to meet up with as though he were nothing more than an old friend from college. _Life is weird,_ I thought, fishing my phone out of my pocket to send him the video of us pranking Damien and Amelia like I had promised. _Might as well enjoy the ride._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that I am finally on break from school, I have more free time to write. Thankfully, very little of my extended family is coming for the holidays, giving me more time to write. Because I write throughout the week, rather than waiting until the last minute to crap something out, it is very possible that I may finish this week's chapter before Friday. My question for you is: Would you rather I upload it when it's finished, possible having two chapters this week, or should I wait until Friday to update, as I usually would?  
> Please let me know in the comment section which you would prefer. It is my job, after all, to make you guys happy, and engaging with you makes my whole day better. It just feels nice knowing that there are people who are interested enough to comment (but no pressure). Anyway, let me know your preference for the schedule, and merry Christmas!  
> -MM
> 
> PS  
> Sorry that I missed Hanukkah and other holidays


	8. Making Plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a very real chance that this chapter sucks. However, I am very tired, both physically and mentally, so consider this a late Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa present to you guys. I'm planning on uploading another chapter on Friday, as I would normally, with this one being a holiday bonus, but I should warn you that there is the possibility of me collapsing from exhaustion by then. I'll obviously try to avoid that, but you never know. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I will see you, my laddies, in the next chapter.

“Bye, Seán,” I said, waving at the Irishman through my webcam. “I’ll talk to you later.”  
_“Bye, Andi,”_ he replied, waving back before ending the videochat. It had been a week since he first contacted me, and I felt closer to him every day. I moved to the kitchen with my laptop, setting it gently on the built-in bar on the counter. I then opened a tab to Google calendar, making sure that there was nothing to distract me from spending time with Seán when he arrived in twelve days. I sighed upon seeing the reminder I had set reminding me that I had a job walking a neighbor’s dog in a couple hours. I had been working for her for five days and had agreed to walk her German shepherd, Cerberus, every day at the same time so she had more time to work and spend time with her girlfriend, Lizzie. I was paid decently, considering that I saved her an hour every day and saved her the trouble of constantly looking for help to maintain the schedule Cerberus was used to. It wouldn’t pay the bills on its own, but it would hold me until I found a better job.

I got up from my desk, where I had begun to spend even more time as I started talking to Seán, in addition to editing my YouTube videos each week. I stretched briefly, popping my shoulders and knees, something my friends and family had always found disturbing, before walking down the hallway to the kitchen. Damien was out scoping for potential jobs for me (and cute people for the both of us), while Amelia stayed home to relax and help me out with my YouTube planning when I needed it. Occasionally I’d ask her about an idea for a skit or game, and she’d give me her opinion on whether or not it was worth pursuing, though my brain seemed to be dead that day.

Once I got to the kitchen, I decided that I might as well get ahead for the week in terms of food. I started searching for various recipes for foods that the three of us all liked on Pinterest until I had enough to last us a week. I had decided on making a big pot of spaghetti, reheatable garlic bread, chicken, fish sticks, and a lasagna, mostly for the other two. Once I figured out what I was making, I started assembling the various culinary supplies and ingredients needed to prepare the food. Amelia offered to help, but I turned her down, saying I needed the time to think anyway.

 As I cooked, I thought about what we could do when Seán came to visit.  I only had nine days to figure something out, and I was stumped. I had tried asking Damien and Amelia for any ideas, but they were just as confused as I was. Despite our now-regular videochatting, I didn’t know him well enough to guess what he would want to do, and the last thing I wanted to do was pick an activity that he hated, ruining my chances at a friendship. As much as I hated to admit it, I don’t have much going on in terms of social life outside of Amelia and Damien. Back home, we were always the weird kids, never talking that much outside of class in high school. Amelia was too shy to talk to people she didn’t already know, Damien always felt too judged to feel comfortable around anyone, and I had my own issues preventing me from having a social life. Moving across the country to California, the social capital of the world, was my declaration of moving on in my life, refusing to be tied down by the past. I wanted to make friends, go to parties, and _be happy_ with life _._ As foolish as it was, I felt that if I messed up this first meeting, Seán would realize what I loser I was and I be left in the same place as before I moved, alone in a world that I didn’t care for.

I shook my head rapidly, as though I could shake the negative thoughts right out of my mind. _If you keep thinking like that, you’re bound to fail,_ I scolded myself, busying my hands with preparing the lasagna. _Even if I did mess up, Seán’s not the type of person to judge based on one bad introduction. Besides,_ I assured myself. _He really seems to like me._ I decided that the next time I talked to him I would ask him for any suggestions. He probably knew the area better than I did, having visited Mark in California many times, while I had only lived there for a few weeks. It still felt weird to be calling the famous Markiplier “Mark”, as though he were just some guy you would meet on the street. _Though someone probably has just met him on the street as a normal guy,_ I thought. Regardless, there was nothing insignificant about him, and it felt weird being introduced to him when I already knew so much about him and I was a complete stranger to him. It felt intrusive, as if I had been spying on his life, rather than being one of thousands to watch videos that he shared with millions of people.

It goes without saying that I was absolutely, undeniably terrified of meeting Seán, let alone Mark, who had even more influence in the world. Regardless, I refused to let the negative thoughts sow their seeds of doubt in my mind, focusing instead on how much fun we would have when we finally met in person, insisting on thinking of them as humans, just like me. It was much easier to imagine meeting them as simply Mark and Seán, without the added pressure that came with their titles, though meeting new people was never very easy for me either. _Look,_ I thought to myself, _you’re going to be fine. These are people famed for their kindness, and you’re already friends with Seán at this point. The only issue left to address is what we’re going to do when he gets here, so calm down already._

I sighed, deciding that I might as well ask him if he had any ideas now, so he could have time to think it over while I cooked and I could stop worrying about it. I rinsed off my hands and sent him a quick text asking for any suggestions he may have. There was no reply for several minutes, which I took to mean that he was recording a video and couldn’t get to the phone at the minute. I opened my favorite music app and set my phone back down on the counter, making sure not to muffle the sounds flowing out of it, before returning to my cooking.

Just as I put the lasagna into the oven to cook, I heard the familiar tone of a text alert coming from my phone. I hung up my oven mitts on the magnetic hook I had attached to the side of the fridge before checking the notification, guessing that it was probably Seán responding to my plea for suggestions almost an hour earlier. As I suspected, it was the green haired Irishman I had grown to call a friend.

S: _I can’t think of anything in particular_

A: _Helpful as always_ , I responded cheekily.

S: _I’m sure we’ll think of something. We have over a week left anyway_

A: _True. I just don’t want to waste time and have nothing planned when you get here_

S: _Even if it came down to that, there’s always laser tag._ Huh. There’s an idea.

A: _Don’t freak out, but I’ve never actually played laser tag_ He replied mere seconds later.

S: _WHAT?!_

S: _After 20 something years of life you’ve never even played LASER TAG?! We need to fix this immediately_. I couldn’t help but chuckle at his response. He acted as though laser tag was a right of passage, something that _everyone_ needed to do in order to be considered human.

A: _Well I guess that solves THAT problem…_

S: _You’re damn right it does! What kind of friend would I be if I allowed you to live your life without ever playing laser tag? You can go ahead and tell Damien and Amelia that they have failed you_. I laughed again. Amelia would blush knowing that Seán mentioned her casually in a conversation, even in a joking manner.

A: _Hearing you say that would break poor Amelia’s heart_

S: _Scratch that then. Only Damien_

A: _On that we can agree. Damien for one has definitely failed me at least a couple times_

S: _Like when he insulted chocolate ice cream?_

A: _That’s just the beginning_

S: * _gasp ***** There’s more?! What kind of horrible person is he?! _  I smirked.

A: _You’ll just have to find out when you get here_

S: _Fair enough. I have to finish editing my videos for the day, but I’ll talk to you later_

A: _Okay. I’m cooking anyway. See you later._ I placed my phone back on the counter, busying myself once more with preparing for the week. Less than half an hour later, I had a week’s worth of food packaged in a combination of ziplock bags and Tupperware containers, which I stored in the fridge and freezer. I piled all the dishes I had dirtied in the sink to soak, deciding that I would take a break and come back to them later. I flopped onto the couch besides Amelia, leaving my laptop at the bar. Amelia looked up from her book as I bounced the springs of the couch.

“So,” she began, “any plans for Jack yet?”

“I was actually just texting him and he suggested laser tag,” I informed her. She nodded her head in agreement.

“Ah, laser tag. America’s favorite pastime.”

I looked at her quizzically. “Baseball is America’s favorite pastime.”

“Nope.” She shook her head. “If that was true, why would you be doing laser tag instead?” I rolled my eyes. “Besides, laser tag is _way_ more popular nowadays. We used to play all the time in high school.”  
“What are you talking about? I never played a game of laser tag in my life.”

“Well,” she replied, already turning back to her book, “I guess now is your chance to make up for lost time.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Time to make up for lost time.”


	9. A New Job

“I did it! Am I the best or what?” Damien strolled through the door, interrupting the episode of Supergirl I was watching with Amelia. “I not only got you the number of a _very_ attractive young lady, but a job opportunity too.” He mock bowed, as though he had just accepted a Nobel Peace Prize.

“Dude!” I exclaimed, jumping up from my place on the couch, running to hug him. “You’re the best! What job?”

He smirked, loving knowing something that I desperately wanted to know. “Oh, gosh, what was it?” He scratched his head, feigning forgetfulness to postpone relinquishing his power over me. “Oh, yes!” He snapped his fingers in recognition as I rolled my eyes. “It was a job at a nearby GameStop.” My jaw dropped.

“Are you serious?” He nodded. “This is perfect! Not only will I be paid to work, but I’ll be kept up to date on everything in the gaming world.”

“You’ll even get a discount on games,” Damien added with a hint of smugness. “And that girl that I got you the number of, you’re welcome by the way, recognized your name from YouTube and was surprised you hadn’t started monetizing your channel yet. I had completely forgotten that you had the option to do that, but she may have a point. You might want to pursue that too, as a little side revenue.” The idea of monetizing my YouTube channel hadn’t even occurred to me. I knew that most well known channels, including Seán, added adds to their videos to create a little extra cash flow, but I hadn’t realized that enough people watched my channel to actually make that work.

“That’s not a bad idea,” I admitted. “Last time I checked, I had somewhere around 65,000 subscribers, and that number’s still climbing.” Amelia whistled in amazement at the huge number.

“I think I’ll take her advice,” I decided. “Though I’m not sure I’m quite ready to start dating yet,” I added as Damien gave me a slip of paper from his pocket with a phone number scrawled under the name Lea. He looked disappointed that I was turning him down. “I’ll give it some thought about Lea, but I will _definitely_ take the job at GameStop and will start adding adds to my videos. Which reminds me, how were you able to get me a job in one day?”

“I have to give the credit to you for that one. I only had to mention to the manager that you were the “Rising Star of YouTube” AndisAsylum, and suddenly she was all ears. She seemed to love the idea of being the boss of a well known YouTuber, thinking it would bring in more customers. She also seemed to think pretty highly of you after you were publicly endorsed by Jack, and figured that you must really love games, to play them so much for YouTube.”

I was stunned. “Wow.” Seán was still helping me, even after launching my YouTube channel and being my friend. The thought made my heart warm, and I made a mental note to hug him to death when he finally got to America. I shook my head in amazement, bringing myself back to my senses, and the friend standing in front of me. “Thank you, Damien. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“Crash and burn?” he suggested, smiling down at me.

“Maybe.” I grinned back up at him. “When does this amazing new job want me to start?”

“The manager wants you to go in either later today or tomorrow, just to make sure you’re not actually an evil person just putting on an image for the camera,” Damien explained. I had expected this and just nodded in response. “After you completely _nail_ that, you start on Monday.”

“Awesome! That gives me a week exactly to prepare.” I hugged him again, so happy that I finally had a realistic way to survive in the city. “Thank you so much for finding me a job, especially one perfect for me.” Maybe I wouldn’t be such a disappointment to my family after all. For the first time since I had moved to the city, I was _certain_ that I would make it. It was as though all the stars were aligning for me, ensuring that I could do anything if I tried hard enough. I felt on top of the world, having the weight of financial worry being lifted from my shoulders. I would still need to budget, of course, and follow roughly the same lifestyle I had back in Ohio, but for the first time in forever, I was completely in charge of my life. I no longer needed to depend on anyone else, and was confident I could make it on my own in the big city. I hadn’t felt so sure of myself for as long as I could remember.

“This is amazing! I feel like one of those happy people in infomercials that have their lives together!” Amelia burst out laughing, coming over from her place on the couch, where she had been listening to our conversation. “I mean it. This is the happiest I’ve ever been in my life, and I am so glad you guys are here with me.” I looked away as my eyes started to water, hiding my face. I was never a very openly emotional person when it came to crying, but I had really opened up since I moved. The drastic lifestyle change of being discovered overnight is probably what kickstarted it, not that I minded. There was nothing wrong with crying, it just wasn’t something that I made a habit of.

_Bzzzzzz.Bzzzzzz.Bzzzzzz._

“Way to ruin the moment,” Damien quipped as I pulled my phone out of my pocket. The daily alarm that I had set reminding me to go check on Cerberus was going off, warning me that I had twenty minutes to get over to his owner’s house.

“I’ve got to get going, guys.” I wiped any remaining moisture from my eyes. “I might as well keep dogsitting, as long as it doesn’t interfere with my new job at GameStop. There’s no harm in having a side job, right?” Damien nodded.

“Dang, girl, you’re going to be rich,” Amelia remarked. “Let’s do a tally. You’ve got a job at GameStop, you have a regular job dog walking, _and_ you’re going to be getting cash from YouTube! When are you getting a mansion, because I _definitely_ want my own room in it!” I laughed, promising Amelia she would have her own room, and a walk in closet, if the time ever came that I could afford a mansion.

“Now,” I interrupted, “it’s time for this millionaire to go walk a dog for an hour. Don’t be too jealous of me.” I made sure I had my dogwalking backpack, phone, keys, and sunglasses before walking out the door, leaving Damien and Amelia to goof off some more.

As I sat in my car, key in the ignition, I realized that I owed everything good that had happened to me to Seán. If I hadn’t won his lottery, I probably wouldn’t have gotten the job at GameStop, and I _definitely_ wouldn’t be as successful on YouTube as I was. Normally, that type of revelation would make one feel inadequate or guilty, but it did the opposite to me. I had the sense to realize that Seán had picked me for a reason, and that he thought I deserved this kind of happiness, and that only made me love him more. Suddenly I couldn’t wait for him to land in America, so I could finally meet the man who had already changed my life so much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not the best thing I've ever written, but definitely not the worst. Sorry for it not being amazing, but I've had a very busy week (Christmas, then my friends suggesting we see a movie, then spending the night last night and getting home at five today), so I didn't have as much time to edit this as I normally would. As usual, please point out any spelling/grammar issues, and I will see you, my laddies, in the next chapter.  
> -MM


	10. The Interview

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry for the delay. My family came to town during the middle of last week and only left this morning. My uncles played a lot of drinking games and insisted on having a Harry potter marathon (not that I mind), we drove for an hour (not pleasant with eight people in one vehicle) to see a production my tía choreographed, and we found out that she and my uncle are expecting their first baby! On top of all of that, my school has cancelled all but one day of school in the past week, on top of winter break, I have a new semester class at my high school, and my Deaf culture college class starts today. Suffice it to say, it has been a very busy week.
> 
> I do plan on uploading another chapter on Friday, hopefully a little longer to make up for my absence. Things should go back to normal once my schedule evens out again. Sorry again for the delay!
> 
> -MM

As I went to work for my dog walking job, I decided that I would wait a day before going in to my interview at GameStop. It seemed best to give myself some time to plan and process, and I wanted to make sure the manager didn’t think I was desperate for a job.

I woke up early the next morning, careful to give myself plenty of time to get ready. I ate a quick breakfast consisting of muffins Amelia had made the night before, while she and Damien tried to “pump me up” for the interview. It was an understatement to say that I was nervous. My stomach churned with uneasiness so much that I had to force myself to eat, and it was a struggle getting each mouthful to go down. One of my worst fears was being judged harshly by society, which I had learned from experience was never pleasant, and job interviews always reminded me of that. The fact that my income and potential success in the city depended on the impression I was to make did little to easy my worry. Damien and Amelia tried to help, reminding me of all my successes, making me appreciate them even more for their dedication towards me. When I expressed this sentiment towards them, they shrugged it off casually.

“Yeah, yeah, we know,” Amelia had said. “Just don’t start crying. You need to look good out there.” She then shoved me off towards my room to get dressed in a nice pair of jeans and a decent shirt. For any other job I would have worn my favorite suit, but, with this being a more casual job, I didn’t want to seem too posh. If I went too over the top, they would think I was shallow and not right for the job. I had to prove that I was cool and approachable. _That sounds easy._

When I was dressed and ready to go, resume and phone in hand, they shoved me out the door. The last thing I heard was Damien calling “Go get them, Tiger!” before the door slammed behind me. I sighed. My friends were more excited than I was. _One foot in front of the other_. I walked down the steps of my apartment building, resisting the urge to fling myself over the rails.

 

Twenty minutes later, I sat in my car in the GameStop parking lot. _You can do this. This is the only thing standing between you and your dream. Do it for your friends. Do it for Seán. Most importantly, do it for yourself. You deserve this job. You will get this job. Now go in there and let the manager know that._ I took one last deep breath and climbed out of my car, walking towards the building with certainty. Never had a GameStop ever looked more intimidating. _Just act casual._

I pushed the door open and walked towards the counter. Thankfully, there was only one man in the store, browsing a back wall. That meant there was no line to wait for. _Most of the customers must be at school,_ I thought to myself.

“Hi!” The cashier greeted. “You must be here for the interview. I’m Alice.” She offered her hand to me and I shook it, nodding. “Nicki, the manager, is in the back room. I’ll go get her.” She turned and walked down a hall way I hadn’t noticed before, hidden behind the counter and several display racks. I heard her knock at a door, returning a moment later with a tall Asian woman.

“Hi, I’m Nicki,” she greeted, also offering her hand to me. I shook it, smiling.

“I’m Andi. But I guess you already know that.” I laughed nervously. Nicki laughed too.

“Do you want to come with me?” She gestured towards the back room. “We can use the backroom so there are no distractions.”

“Sure.” She guided me behind the counter, careful not to knock over any displays.

“This should only take a minute,” she said over her shoulder. “We’re required to hold interviews before hiring someone, otherwise I’d have already handed you a uniform.” She laughed, and I decided to laugh with her, not sure how I felt. I didn’t want to just be handed a job.

“I’m glad that I have to be interviewed.” I had to tread lightly; I didn’t want to offend her. “Otherwise it wouldn’t feel fair.” She glanced at me, holding open the door to the backroom. There was a gleam in her eye that I couldn’t place.

“I can admire that,” she said finally. “You never expect things, do you?” Something told me this was a rhetorical question. She sat down behind one of three desks in the room, indicating for me to do the same. I sat across from her, careful not to trip on a power cord poking out from under the desk. “The problem with humans is, they tend to feel entitled. Particularly certain groups of people.” She glanced at my arms. Suddenly I was uncomfortably aware of how pale my skin was, wishing I had worn something with longer sleeves. “But,” she continued, “you’re not like them. Something tells me you’ve had to work for everything in your life. Why?”

It was a simple enough question, why I had to work for everything in my life, but suddenly my mind went blank. My brain struggled, grasping for anything that might resemble a word. “I guess-” I cut off, clearing my thought. “I guess it’s just how I am.” She raised an eyebrow, clearly not satisfied with my answer. “I know that you’ve faced struggles, as an Asian-American, and as a woman. That’s probably why you recognize me.” I exhaled slowly. “I’ve gone though similar, how shall I say, _negative treatment_. Not the same, but similar. I know that I look like the average white American girl, but I’m not. My dad is half-Colombian. Add that to being a queer woman, and you get treated differently by society. It’s harder for things to go your way when you’re different. There’s always someone that’ll hate you for having the courage to be who you were born to be, and it takes more effort to overcome them. I guess you just picked up on a sort of vibe that others don’t recognize as their own.” We sat in silence for a couple seconds. I started to regret my tangent, hoping I didn’t scare her with my uprightness, when she finally reacted.

“Well.” Nicki sat upright in her chair. “That certainly explains it. We’re survivors, the two of us. It’s our job to help each other out, when no one else will. Just as I suspected, the job is yours.” I smiled. “That is, if you can handle the thought of seeing me every day,” she joked. “Sorry for interrogating you. I hope I didn’t scar you for life.” I waved it off.

“Believe me, it’s not the first time it’s happened. People don’t tend to think of me as Latina, so I have to explain pretty frequently when I register as mix-raced.” Nicki nodded.

“People do the same to me.” She looked at her lap. “They think that I _have_ to register as Asian, even though I was raised by white parents, with white siblings.”

“I know the feeling. Cross-culture adoptions are difficult, but you’re just as much a part of the family as anyone else.” Nicki nodded and smiled appreciatively.

 _This took a very strange turn,_ I thought to myself. _Most interviews don’t delve into this sort of stuff._ I shifted in my seat, not sure how to continue. _At least I got the job._ Oddly enough, I didn’t mind the strangeness of the conversation, even if it was out of the ordinary. It felt nice to have someone understand. As much as they tried to sympathize, Amelia and Damien didn’t quite understand what it felt like to be split between worlds.

Nicki seemed to notice the tense atmosphere and stood up. “Well, I guess that concludes your interview.” We both laughed as I stood up. “I won’t be lying when I say I look forward to working with you.”

“That’s always encouraging.” I laughed genuinely. Something told me the two of us would become very good friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to those who have commented, subscribed, or left kudos! It's really encouraging to know that some people take time out of their day to read my story, and I love interacting with you. If you have any ideas about how the story could go, please say them in the comments. You guys are one of the reasons I love writing so much. Thanks again for reading, and I will see you, my ladies and laddies, in the next chapter!  
>  -MM


	11. Planning

“So, how’d it go?” Amelia was sitting at the top of the stairs of my apartment building when I returned, reading a book. _I wonder how long she’s been there._ I quickly ran up the stairs, already grinning. “I’m going to guess from your expression that you got the job.” I laughed.

“Your assumption would be correct,” I confirmed. Amelia whooped and raised her hand for a high five. I smacked her hand as hard as I could, wincing at the pain, but still smiling.

“Ow!” Amelia yelped. “That really hurt!” She cradled her arm, being overdramatic as always for comedic effect while I fished my key out of my pocket.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” I moved past her to unlock the door while she complained. “Now we get to tell Damien the good news. Where is he?” I took off my shoes and put them on the door mat by the door, noticing that Damien’s ugly old sneakers were missing.

“He went out to get some shampoo.” Amelia rolled her eyes. Damien was known for his high maintenance hair, spending almost as much time as Amelia getting ready every day. “Why can’t he just have normal hair, like most guys?” I looked at her over my shoulder saucily.

“Since when has Damien ever been known to be like ‘most guys’?” Amelia huffed.

“I see your point. But does is have to be so long? He looks like Arin, from GameGrumps.”

“Hey now,” I warned, “I might get to meet Arin at some point, and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t take kindly to being compared to Damien.” Amelia nodded. To an observer, we might seem like mean people, but we knew that our friendship was build on the shared appreciation of sarcasm and wit. We could be downright fluffy at times, but we mostly insulted each other jokingly. Beneath all of our teasing and jokes, we knew that we loved each other, and we would do anything for each other.

Amelia smirked slyly, nudging me with her shoulder. “Not only do you get to meet Arin, but you get to go on your date with Jack soon, too.” I scoffed.

“You _know_ it’s not a date.” She shrugged, unconvinced.

“Maybe, maybe not. Have you told him about your new job yet?”

“No, but I was thinking about making a video about it for my channel. It would be nice to keep my Family updated, and I get a free video out of it.” I had recently started calling my subscribers my Family because of everything they had done for me. It didn’t feel right calling them “fans”, and “subscribers” felt too impersonal. I didn’t yet have a specific term yet, despite reaching 97,000 subscribers by lunch time with the number still growing by the thousands in the span of a few hours. I knew that I would have to come up with a name eventually, but that seemed like a problem for another day.

“You should try go ahead and sign up for AdSense, while you’re at it,” Amelia suggested, walking to the kitchen. “You might as well start building up revenue now, rather than later.” She tossed me an apple we had picked out at the market. I considered my options as I bit into it. Amelia was right about signing up for Adsense, but I wasn’t sure how much information I wanted to disclose to the public about my new job. _I guess I’ll just wing it and edit out anything I don’t want to keep,_ I thought to myself.

“I’m going to register right now, before I forget,” I called over my shoulder as I walked briskly down the hall towards my room. I sat down at my desk and opened my laptop, still munching on my apple. I took me a few minutes to find the right forms, but filling them out was simple enough once I did. I knew most of the information by heart, such as my bank account info and personal information, but I had to send Amelie to double check information regarding the apartment. I hadn’t quite memorized the address or zip code yet, and almost put down the information for my old house back in Ohio, but caught myself, thankfully. By the time I reached the core of my apple, I was ready to submit the forms. I sat for a moment, letting what I was about to do sink in, before I pressed “Submit”. _Well_ , I thought to myself, _that’s one less thing to worry about, and one step closer to your dreams._

I got up from the cheap IKEA desk and walked back to the kitchen to throw away my apple core. Had I still lived in Ohio, I would have just thrown it into the backyard to decay on its own and act as a natural fertilizing. But I wasn’t in Ohio, I was in the big city, without a backyard or any yard at all, so I threw it away. Amelia was sitting at the bar, messily eating a ham sandwich, so I sat down beside her.

“Are you ready to film?” she asked around her mouthful of bread.

“I guess,” I responded. “There’s nothing stopping me from recording now. And the sooner I tell them, the better.” Amelia smiled, patting my knee.

“You know I’m proud of you, right?” I smiled warmly at my best friend. All jokes aside, she was the sweetest of us, the emotional glue that grounded us when we felt we were being washed to sea.

“Yeah. I know.”

“Good. If not, I’d have to kick your ass for being stupid,” she joked. I smirked playfully.

“I can take you.” I jumped up from the stool I was sitting on, out of reach of Amelia’s long arms, knowing she’d swing at me playfully.

“Yeah, you’d better be glad I’m busy with this sandwich, or I’d come after you,” she threatened. I chuckled, already gathering my filming supplies. I had decided that I would start filming in my room until I had a better setup. It was where I would spend most of my time once Amelia and Damien went back to Ohio and I was most comfortable there anyway. I moved my cheap lighting gear into my room, spending several minutes arranging it into the right position to get the desired effect, before even pulling out my camera. I quickly set up my recording tripod and carefully set my camera on top, making sure I was in the shot. Then, I pressed record.

“Hey guys, it’s Andi!” I greeted as usual. “I just wanted to give a few updates about my life and how they will affect the channel. To start off, you probably notice that this is not my living room, where I’ve been recording. This is actually my bedroom, and it is my plan to start recording in here, for the time being at least. Except, of course, when I have guests. Then we’ll be back in the living room. I’m filming from in here because my bedroom has better lighting and soundproofing, and I feel more comfortable in here, so it delivers better quality and is easier to film. And I have no other area where I could film with even half the quality.”

“On a happier note, I now have a job!” I squealed a bit in excitement, punching the air. “Damien managed to get me an interview at a local GameStop, and I absolutely _nailed_ the interview, which was actually only about two hours ago. This is the _perfect_ job. Not only do I get paid- which, y’know, is usually pretty helpful- but I also get a discount on games! How awesome is that?” I paused, wondering if I should tell them much more about the location of the GameStop, but I decided to play it safe. “I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to tell you which GameStop I work at, no offense or anything. I just don’t think it’s a good idea to have that much personal information out there for everyone to see. Hopefully, you guys will understand that.” I trailed off, not sure how to continue.

“Anyway, I will be back to my regular schedule soon. Once I start working, I’ll have more money and won’t have to worry as much about my gaming habits. In fact, I’m going to start hooking up my consoles pretty soon, once I decide where I want them. As I said before, I want to film in here, but I don’t have a TV to hook my gear up to, or a good monitor. I just have my laptop, a crappy microphone, an old pair of headphones I got when I was in high school, and a set of lights I patched together using old scraps. And my trusty tripod I got from Walmart for like, ten bucks.” I sighed. “How did I even make it this far with such crappy equipment?” I wondered out loud.

“Oh, I have something else important to tell you! This is a big step for the channel, and I hope you guys realize how amazing this is. As of,” I checked my alarm clock, “twenty-eight minutes ago, AndisAsylum is a monetized channel! This may not seem that important, but I’ve decided to set aside forty five percent of any money I make off of YouTube to fund future videos. This is a really big commitment for me. The first thing I’m going to buy is a decent microphone. You guys are probably tired of listening to me through the not-so-nice microphone built into my phone, especially with my weird voice. It’s honestly a wonder that you can understand me at all, but I guess we can thank speech therapy for that. That’ll probably be pretty expensive, as you can imagine, but I’m not going to give up. I’m also going to start looking into professional lighting, but that may take a while, depending on how much money I make.” I took a deep breath, reveling in the potential that was my channel. Once so small, it was taking off, on the road to paying for itself. After enough time, it was possible that I could even make a profit off my videos. “This is really exciting,” I said to the camera, hoping they could see how happy they made me.

“I have one last subject before I sign off. You guys may not have noticed just how much this channel has grown. The last time I checked, which was a couple hours ago, we were at 101,000 subscribers, and there’s no sign of the flow stopping any time soon. I want you guys to stop and think about that. There are potentially _100_ _,999_ people watching this video with you. That’s a lot.” I chuckled nervously. “I am so proud of you all, all 101,000 of you. You aren’t just a number to me. It doesn’t feel right calling you “fans” or “subscribers”, so I was wondering, what do you want to be called? All the best YouTube channels have names for their fans. There’s the Markiplites (which I am one of), the Bro Army, the Maybabies…” I rambled off. “Huh. I just realized Seán doesn’t have a name for his fans. Well, other than ‘Any Rational Human’”.  I realized that that was the first time I had referred to Seán by his first name on the channel. I decided to ignore it and move on, hoping no one would notice. I hadn’t told them about my growing friendship with the Irishman.

“So, if you have any ideas, please put them in the comment section. I’ll let you decide what you want to be called, so just decide amongst yourselves and get back to me on that, alright? Alright, I’ve got to go now. As always, I will see you, my loves, in the next video. Bye!” I mock saluted at the camera, laughing a bit.

 _Wow,_ I thought, reaching to turn off my camera, _I just covered a lot of ground._ I opened my editing software to get started on the next step of work. It took much less time than usual, and was ready to be uploaded within twenty minutes. _I’ll just save that for now and upload it according to schedule_ , I thought, setting an alarm on my phone to remind me. I sat back in my and stared at the ceiling. Everything felt so much more real. When I had just started YouTube, it felt like a joke, something I would do as a hobby, but now it was important. Suddenly, I had an obligation to over 101,000 people, and it would kill me to let them down. Regardless, I was happier than I had ever been.

I looked around my room, noticing for the first time how bare it was. I’d just have to decorate it once I had saved up enough money. _But that comes after recording gear. In the meantime, I can find out how to improve the quality of my videos behind the scenes._ I knew that recording in an empty room with no sound proofing was a terrible idea, but it was all I had at the time. I didn’t even have any old mattresses or pillows to use as sound buffers. Even if I _did_ have enough padding to dampen the sound, I didn’t have any place to put it. My room was obviously off limits, as was the kitchen, dining room, and bathroom. That left only the guest room. _It’s worth looking into_ , I thought, standing up to go look at the room in question.

I quickly shouted down the hall to see if Amelia was okay with me going into the room she had been occupying, and only entered when she said she didn’t mind. The guest room was a little smaller than my room, closet and all. The only main difference was that the room had a medium sized single window instead of a large set of double windows, as my room did. I quickly looked around and thought about my options. If I moved the bed a little to the left, I could bring in a small table and set up a recording area in the corner. There would be plenty of natural sunlight coming through the window, and I could set up a mattress or something to soundproof the corner. It would be easy enough, and the cost would be minimal. The only potential problem would be sacrificing at least part of the guest room, but, knowing me, that wouldn’t be much of an issue. I didn’t plan on having people spending the night that often, and I could always relocate my gear if it came down to it. _I’ll ask Seán what he thinks when he comes._

I checked the date on my phone and realized that he would be arriving in eight days. I sighed, thinking about how I would have to start cleaning the apartment in a couple days. I didn’t know yet where we would meet, let alone if he would want to come back to my apartment, but I wanted to be prepared, just in case. Thankfully, Amelia and Damien were fairly neat, and I hadn’t had enough time to make a mess in my room yet.

I walked back across the hall to my room and grabbed my laptop off its place on my desk, plopping down onto my comfy bed. I opened Netflix and decided to just relax for a bit and tune out the world. However, I was interrupted less than ten minutes into my potential binge-sesh by a knock at my bedroom door.

“Yeah?” I called, pausing my show. Amelia opened the door a crack and poked her head in, trying to hide a smile.

“Can I come in?”

“Yeah, of course.” I closed my laptop and patted the spot next to me. She sat next to me and I noticed for the first time that she was holding her phone in her hand. “What’s up?” I asked, eager to know why she was acting so weird.

“Have you checked your Twitter recently?” she countered. I shook my head.

“I’ve been too busy.”

“Well you might want to start checking it more often, now that you’re famous.” By now she was full on grinning, not even trying to hide it. I rolled my eyes, not even bothering to correct her anymore. “You might miss important things from your fans. Like, say, your first piece of fanart.” She held out her phone for me to see. I quickly tapped on the attachment to the Tweet, after reading the message: “@AndisAsylum I’m so glad you won Jack’s contest, otherwise I wouldn’t have found my new muse”. It took a few seconds for the image to clear up, but when it did, it took my breath away.

The picture was simple enough. It was obviously drawn on a computer, and was not made by the most amazing artist in the world, but to me, it was the most beautiful thing in the world. It was a dorky drawing of what I recognized as myself, sitting in a computer chair. I was wearing my favorite blue plaid shirt, and was smirking at the camera. Something on my hand caught my eye and I zoomed in on it. It was very blurring and hard to see, barely a silver line really, but I knew what it was. It was my token, my ring given to me by my mother for Christmas when I was thirteen. Suddenly a drop of clear liquid hit the screen, blurring it even more. I raised a hand to touch my face and realized I was crying.

Amelia smiled and hugged me, letting me cry onto her shoulder. Every time I thought I was done, I would glance at the phone and it would start all over again. Eventually, the tears ran out and I sat up again. Amelia smirked at me.

“And you said you weren’t famous,” she taunted. I cracked a grin and laughed. _This really is the beginning of something great._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I am uploading behind schedule. I've had a bad case of writers block recently, along with a busy week, so there wasn't that much I could do to it update on time. Thankfully, I am re-adjusting to my new schedule and things should be back on track from here.  
> Also, if you have any ideas about what Andi's fans should be called, please share them in the comments. I love your guys' input, whether it takes the form of kudos, comments, or subscriptions. I want try to interact with you as much as I can, but it's a lot harder if you don't help me out. I want this story to be as interactive as possible, with you guys acting as Andi's fans occasionally. Please don't feel afraid to comment!  
> As always, if you see any spelling/grammar errors, please point them out, and I will see you, my ladies and laddies, in the next chapter!  
> -MM
> 
> PS This week's chapter will definitely be uploaded on time. It's only Wednesday when I'm writing this, and I'm almost done with the chapter. Maybe I'll even get a head start on next week's chapter, depending on how much I plan on editing. Anyway, sorry for all the delays. These last few weeks have been really hard on me, but I think I'm back on track now. Thank you so much for the kudos and all the lovely comments, they really make my day!


	12. A Call From Seán

_Man, I love this job, but I’m so glad it’s Friday,_ I thought as I drove home from my fifth day of work. I drummed on the steering wheel with my fingers to the beat of Uptown Funk. Good thing I loved the song, or I’d be mad about how often they played it on the radio. I pulled into the parking spot that came with my apartment and decided to wait for the song to stop before going in. As I was shamelessly dancing around and signing the lyrics in ASL, I got a notification on my phone. I quickly stopped to check it and say it was a text from Damien. _You know we can see you, right?_ I looked up at the apartment to see a gleeful Damien waving at me from the kitchen window. I quickly texted back “ _Like that has ever stopped me before_ ” and continued my dancing. I could see the exasperation on his face as he glanced at his phone, and smirked at him when he looked up. I pulled my keys out of the ignition as the final notes played and clambered out of my car.

Halfway up the steps to my floor, I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket. I pulled it to see what Damien had to say this time and was surprised to see that it wasn’t him. It was Seán asking about what time I wanted to meet up. His flight was in five days and he was set to arrive around one in the afternoon. He insisted on spending the day actively instead of getting settled at Mark’s. He had even recorded and edited videos in advance, so his uploading schedule wouldn’t be disrupted. He had thought of everything.

A: _I don’t know, I’m free whenever. If you want, I could help you move your stuff in, so we can save time._

I thought for a moment before realizing that that might be an invasion of Mark’s privacy. We hadn’t even met yet, and I had just suggested going to his house.

A: _On second thought, that’s probably not a good idea. I don’t want to intrude or anything._ I waited for Seán’s response, biting my lip. Hopefully he didn’t think I was being intrusive on purpose. It was several minutes before he replied, and I was already sitting on my bedroom floor connecting my game consoles to a second hand monitor I picked up at work when I heard my phone chime.

S: _Too late. I already asked Mark and he said he was fine with you coming by_

A: _Are you sure? I don’t want to put him in a position he’s uncomfortable with_

S: _Trust me, Mark makes it know when he’s uncomfortable._ I couldn’t help but sigh in relief. I hated being rude, especially to someone who I was such a big fan of. That’s when it hit me that I would be going to Markiplier’s house.

“Holy crap,” I whispered aloud. Thankfully, I was home alone and wouldn’t be interrupted for a while. I heard a second chime and looked down at my screen.

S: _Besides, he thinks I’ve got a crush on you anyway_

“What parallel dimension is this?” I yelled. “What the hell is going on? First, I get picked from a lottery, then I get an awesome job practically _handed_ to me, and now I’m going to freakin’ _Markiplier’s_ house!” I threw my hands up in indignation, thought I wasn’t quite sure what I was indignant about. “And he thinks Jacksepticeye has a crush on me, just to top it off! Do I suddenly have some sort of magic genie now? Is the world trying to pay me back for all the crap I’ve been through? Because it’s a little late for that, and there are people who need sympathy more anyway.” I snatched my phone up from where I had dropped it on the floor next to me.

A: _That’s funny, because Amelia’s been calling our meet up a “date” since Day 1_

S: _What great friends we have, right? Can’t even let us have other friends without their taunting_

A: _But if they didn’t taunt us, would they even be friends?_

S: _Touché_

S: _Anyway, I can’t wait to meet you in person!_ I chuckled. He made it seem like the roles were reversed and he was the fan and I was the famous one.

A: _Me either. Just be prepared for me to hug the crap out of you when I see you_

S: _Duly noted. I will prepare accordingly_

A: _Do you want to FaceTime?_ I suggested. _It might be easier, and I’m setting up my games in my room anyway_

S: _Good idea._

I quickly looked around and grabbed my tripod off my desk. I set it under my desk, where I was sitting, and quickly attached my phone just as the call came in. I turned on my desk lamp and set it next to me to make sure he could see me before slighting the key to accept the call.

 _“Hello, beautiful,”_ Seán greeted.

“Hello Seán. Long time no see,” I replied. “Do you might if I start setting up my consoles?”

 _“Oh no, go ahead.”_ He waved his hand, beckoning for me to continue fiddling with the wires. _“By the way, this lighting suits you perfectly.”_ I paused to glare at him, sensing his obvious sarcasm. _“You look like a college student filming at night with their roommate asleep three feet away.”_

“And you think Mark and Amelia are the bad friends,” I mumbled under my breath.

“ _You said it yourself, my sarcasm is what makes me such a great friend.”_ He smirked at me as I connected the final wire than allowed me to use my Xbox from my desk.

“Yes!” I exclaimed, fist bumping the air and almost knocking the tripod over in my enthusiasm. Seán laughed.

 _“I’m going to guess that you got something hooked up and that you’re not agreeing with me.”  
_ “You would be correct. So, correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re going to arrive at the airport around one, right?” Seán nodded. “Is Mark going to pick you up there?”

“ _That’s normally how this goes, so I’m going to assume that.”_

“If you wanted, I could meet you there and drive you over to his place,” I suggested. “I mean, it’s already been decided that I’ll help you unload, and we’ll need my car anyway, unless you want Mark to pick me up and drive us back to my apartment.” Seán nodded thoughtfully.

“ _Good point. I can call Mark about that later, but he should be okay with it. And it saves him a trip to the airport anyway.”_

 _“_ Okay, so I’ll pick you up, we’ll drive to Mark’s house to unload. You’ll get set up there, probably set a video to upload or something, and then we hang out? Is that where we are?” Seán nodded through the camera, though he looked uncertain. “Do you have any ideas on what to do during that time?”  
_“Not really. And you’re the one living in California.”_ He smirked at me. “ _Whatever we do, it shouldn’t be too exhausting. I’m going to be pretty jetlagged after spanning the five-hour time difference.”_ I grimaced in sympathy.

“Ouch. Yeah, I had forgotten about that. So even though you get here at one, it’ll feel like six to you.” Seán sighed.

“ _Times zones are a bitch._ ”

“I’ll have to take your word on that. I’ve never flown between time zones before, so it hasn’t been much of an issue, other than having friends across the world.” Seán raised his eyebrows in surprise.

 _“You’ve never flown between countries before? Not even once.” _I shook my head, not knowing why it was so hard to believe. “ _We’ll have to fix that some other time. You can come to Ireland to see me.”_ Seeing his goofy grin made me smile, laughing a bit.

“One day, Seán, I promise. But first, I need to get this stupid thing,” I gestured at my PS3, “set up so I can start filming actual gaming videos. I’m pretty sure my viewers will get pretty bored of just me talking about my life pretty soon, if they’re not already. That reminds me," I started, "I have some ideas regarding YouTube I’d like to run by you once you get here, if that’s okay.”

 _“Yeah, of course. Anything for the fans.”_ The twinkle in his eye made it clear that he was joking, but it still seemed weird for a fan to be actual friends with their former idol. Not that I suddenly thought that he was not worthy of being idolizing, but it was harder knowing him as a person, as just Seán, and holding him to that pedestal.

“Thanks.” I grinned. “It means a lot. I don’t have any other YouTuber friends, let alone _famous_ YouTuber friends, so I don’t have anyone else to ask for advice.” Seán smirked.

 _“Give is a month and you’ll be surrounded by us. You’ll meet Mark when we drop off my stuff, and I’ll introduce you to Ethan and Tyler at the convention. Maybe even Dan and Arin from Game Grumps, if they’re there. I don’t really remember. Regardless, they’ll all love you. In fact, they’ll be jealous that I got to you first and stole your time.”_ I laughed, knowing he was exaggerating to make me feel better. _  
_ “You’re sweet, but I hardly think _that’ll_ happen. I guess they could like me, as long as I don’t seem too awkward, but I don’t think they’ll like me _that_ much.” Seán snorted.

_“You’d be surprised. These guys love making friends more than anyone I’ve ever met before.”_

“I guess it’s part of your job to be friendly, huh?” I wondered.

 _“I prefer to think of it more as a privilege than a job. And soon enough it’ll be your privilege too.”_ Seeing my eyeroll, he continued. _“I’m serious. You’ve got a serious future on YouTube if you play your cards right. And I’m here to make sure you do. It’d be a shame if the world never got to meet you.”_ I was caught off guard by his frankness.

“Do you really think that much of me?” I asked hesitantly.

 _“Well, yeah. You’re my friend, Andi. I picked you for a reason. I know that we haven’t known each other long, but you’re important to me.”_ I could feel the prickling behind my eyes that I had grown used to in the last few weeks.

“You need to get your ass to America so I can hug you, you little leprechaun,” I sniffled.

 _“Don’t worry, I’ll be there soon enough. Then you can hug me all you want.”_ I smirked mischievously, eyes still watering.

“You’re going to regret saying that.”

 _“I’ll bet. So, I have a question for you, regarding YouTube.”_ I nodded for him to go on. _“Do you plan on recording in your bedroom? I’ve been watching most of your uploads, when I have time, and it doesn’t seem like it has much soundproofing.”_

“I actually uploaded a video about that a couple days ago. I guess you missed it. My current plan is to record in here for now, but one of the things I was going to ask you about was possibly converting part of the guest room into a filming area. It has plenty of natural light from a window, and I could put up a couple mattresses or something so the sound wouldn’t bounce around so much. What do you think?”

 “ _Well,”_ he started, _“it’s hard to say without seeing the layout and everything, but I can check it out when I’m there, if you’d like.”_ I couldn’t help but beam.

“Thank you so much! I’m really taking YouTube stuff seriously now that people are actually watching, and I don’t want to let them down. I’m also looking into better equipment now that I’ll be better able to pay for it.” The conversation died down for a moment as I continued connecting wires.

“Oh, my gods!" I exclaimed. "If you haven’t seen the video that I talk about my filming setup, there’s a bunch of other stuff you don’t know either!” Seán seemed pretty confused.

_“What don’t I know?”_

“You’re going to love this.” I cleared my throat expectantly. “I got a job.” Immediately, Seán began congratulating me. “That’s not all. It’s a job at GameStop.”

“ _Wait, that’s even better! Don’t you get an employee discount or something?”_ I nodded, grinning.

“15 percent. And it gets even better. I also signed up to have my channel monetized!”

 _“What? That’s great! You’ll be rich in no time.”_ I laughed, adjusting the tripod so I could go back to setting up my PS3.

“Not likely. I’ve decided that 45 percent of all money that comes from my channel will go right back into funding it. I really need a better microphone and a decent set of lights.” I laughed, having an idea. “Hey, if you’re up to it, maybe you can help me pick out some new gear in a few days.” I was obviously joking, but Seán seemed to think it was a good idea.

 _“I can do that. After, of course, we hang out for a while. We can’t let YouTube run our lives,”_ he warned.

“Good point. I’ve been a little obsessed since I won your lottery.” I sighed, realizing that I could have had all my consoles set up in the time we had been talking. “I need to focus. I keep getting distracted and forgetting that I’m supposed to be working. I blame you,” I pointed at the camera built into my phone, “for being so darn fun to talk to.”

 _“And devilishly handsome,_ ” he added, making me chuckle.

“That too,” I admitted.

_“Well, I’ll try to be boring until you finish getting everything set up.”_

“How considerate of you.”

Twenty minutes of chatter and messing around with wires later, the consoles were finally set up.

“Finally!” I cheered, jumping up and dancing around a little.

 _“Hey!”_ called a voice from my feet. “ _Forget about me, did ya?”_

“Sorry,” I apologized. “I got a little excited there.” I glanced at my watch. “Crap, I have to go walk a dog soon. I should probably go.”  
_“Okay,_ ” Seán glanced at the time on his phone. “ _Holy balls! Yeah, I’ve got to get ready for my second upload of the day. I guess I’ll see you later then.”_

“Okay. Bye, Seán!” I waved at the screen, smiling, while he did the same.

“ _Bye, Andi!”_

I walked down the hall to the kitchen to grab a snack before heading out in a couple minutes.

 _I can’t believe it,_ I thought, searching for a banana. _I’m going to meet the YouTubers_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man it feels good to be back! I finally got my schedule stabilized between school and home, so there's no way I'll be slipping up any time soon. As I mentioned in the notes at the end of last week's chapter, please comment what you think Andi's fans should be called. I don't have a particular idea in mind, and I love hearing your feedback, so don't be afraid to comment. Thank you to everyone who has commented or left kudos, and especially to those who have subscribed. It means the world to me that someone is actually enjoying my story. If you have any ideas, feel free to comment them. And, as always, I will see you, my ladies and laddies, in the next chapter!  
> -MM


	13. Preparing for a Visit

I woke up Sunday morning to the sound of Damien and Amelia laughing and sliding around in the kitchen. I smiled as I used my hand to block out the sunlight pouring through my large windows. _I love my life._ I glanced at the clock on my nightstand to see that it was about 9:45. I sat up and stretched, appreciating all over again how lucky I was to have an amazing apartment and such great friends. _Things are only getting better from here_ , I thought. _Seán’s right. I’m sure I’ll get along fine with the others._ I slowly poked one leg out from under the covers, checking to see I it was too cold, before swinging my feet onto the plush rug Amelia had helped me pick out from Target the first weekend since I moved in. I picked my phone up from where it was charging on my nightstand and stood up, taking a small blanket with me.

I walked down the short hall slowly, listening to my friends’ laughter. It made me happy just hearing them finding fun in the simple things in life. They must have heard my steps as I neared the corner looking into the kitchen, because they turned to look at me, still laughing. The first thing I noticed was how their eyes sparkled with humor. The second thing I noticed was the fact that they were covered in flour. I tried to pretend to be stern, but I could barely contain my smile.

“Hey guys,” I greeted tentatively. “Having fun?” Damien snorted.

“You could say that. Sorry for waking you.” He didn’t look sorry. In fact, he seemed happy that I was awake and able to join them in their shenanigans. Amelia quickly wiped as much flour off her dollar store apron as she could before stepping aside to reveal a disastrous bowl of what I assumed was meant to be a batter of some kind.

“Turns out that there’s a reason why neither of us went into cooking,” she started. Damien snorted in laughter, causing her to spin around and smack him on the arm playfully. Neither of them could keep a straight face and ended up giggling every few seconds.

“I bet I can guess why. So,” I picked up the bowl and glanced into it skeptically, “do either of you want to tell me what it was you were trying to make? Because this looks like watery oatmeal.” I snickered as Damien and Amelia glanced at each other sheepishly.

“You know,” Damien took the bowl from my hands to set on the table, “let’s just go with that. At least it resembles some sort of food.” He shrugged, still grinning. At least we were all able to see the humor in the situation instead of getting frustrated.

“Maybe I should make breakfast,” I suggested. I couldn’t help but laugh at my friends’ relieved faces. They may seem like fully functioning adults, but they couldn’t even make a decent breakfast unless it was microwaveable.

“You may be onto something,” Amelia said. “It’s a wonder we didn’t set the building on fire.”

“Yeah, that wouldn’t be a very pleasant way to wake up,” I agreed, chuckling. “So, what d you guys want?” I began peering into various cabinets to check for useful ingredients. “We could have pancakes, bacon, eggs, cereal, or,” I spun around, holding a familiar blue box, “my world famous PopTarts.”

“I’ll be taking one of those.” Damien snatched the box out of my hands and tore into it, dropping little pieces of cardboard on the counter of the bar. “Of course, I wouldn’t object to the idea of bacon too,” he clarified, already stuffing a pastry into his mouth.

“Alrighty then. Bacon it is. What about you Amelia? Do you want some pancakes?” I bent down to pull out a pan for frying bacon “I’m going to make some for myself, so it’s no trouble if you do.”

“Yes please,” Amelia answered, taking a seat at the bar. She and Damien scrolled through their phones as I quickly whipped up a breakfast that was actually edible. We ate our breakfast together, laughing about our adventures in the city so far. Eventually the topic turned to Seán and his upcoming visit, as I knew it would. I hadn’t yet updated my friends about the scenario regarding Mark, solely because I hadn’t had time, despite having a full two days passed since I had lost talked to Seán.

“So,” Amelia started, twiddling with her fork. It was a dead giveaway that she was going to talk about Seán, as she only fiddled with things when she was talking about someone important to one of us who the others didn’t know very well. “What’s the deal with you and Jack? I mean, are you guys going to hang out at all on Wednesday, or will he need that time to adjust to the area?” I put down my fork to focus on our conversation.

“Well,” I began, “the original plan was to hang out a bit Wednesday afternoon, but there’s been a slight change of plans. I’m going to pick him up from the airport and help him move his stuff to Mark’s apartment.” Cue the dazed look from Amelia, and even Damien, who had put down his phone when the topic changed. After a moment of confusion, which was very funny to watch, Damien broke the silence.

“So, what you’re telling us is that you’re going to pick up Jacksepticeye, who you’ve befriended, from the airport, and you’re going to take him to Markiplier’s apartment? Who you’re also hoping to become friends with?” I nodded slowly. “Okay,” he said suddenly. “That’s it. That’s the last straw. Nothing surprises me anymore. You could tell me that Amelia is secretly the time traveling pharaoh of ancient Egypt and I would believe you.”

“Maybe I am.” Amelia smirked mysteriously, making Damien throw his hands up in exasperation.

“You see what I mean? I completely believe you! What is the world coming to?” He stood up from the bar and offered his hands to take our dirty dishes. We, of course, gratefully handed them over.

“Wow,” I remarked. “Damien willingly doing the dishes? It really is the end of the world.” Damien didn’t even bother turning around, instead shouting his retort so we could hear him over the running water.

“You shut your face before I change my mind!”

“What’s on the to do list today, boss?” Amelia asked, perched on the arm of the living room couch.

“Not that much. I don’t have to work today, other than walking Cerberus, so I guess we get to hang out here.” Suddenly I realized that I would be hosting my first real guests since I moved in only three days and had a moment of panic. “Scratch that,” I said. “I have to shift it into maximum overdrive. We’ll have people over in three days and this place needs to be presentable. I have to work Monday and Tuesday, and I’ll be at the airport early on Wednesday, so that leaves today to clean and get things in order. Oh, gods, I should have been cleaning the whole weekend, but I forgot,” I trailed off, mumbling how stupid I was for not realizing my responsibilities as a host.

“It’s okay, Andi, you’ll be fine.” Amelia put her hand on my arm comfortingly, making me look at her. “I don’t think Seán would judge you, even if you didn’t clean at all.” Seeing the look of panic in my eyes, she continued in her soothing tone. “Thankfully, you won’t have to find out because you have the best cleaning service of all. The free labor of good friends. Just tell us what to do and we’ll do it.” I hugged her gratefully.

“Oh, thank the gods. What would I do without you?” I didn’t give her time to reply, instead hurrying on to explain all the tasks that needed to be accomplished before Seán arrived. I quickly delegated tasks to both Amelia and Damien, deciding to focus first on the most obvious of issues. This included cleaning the bathroom and kitchen, and me tidying my bedroom. We quickly set up a music station on the TV in the living room and got to work.

After half an hour of intense cleaning, our first set of chores were done, so we regrouped and delegated a new list of tasks. This went on for most of the day, taking a break for a late lunch and several moments to jam out to our favorite songs. By seven o’clock that night, the majority of the cleaning had been completed. Only small touch ups remained, and those could be finished up easily after coming home from work at some point in the next two days.

Calling it good enough, we plopped down on the couch to unwind. We reheated some leftovers I had made earlier in the week for such occasions and settled down to talk and relax. In the middle of a debate about which _Parks and Rec_ character was most like each of us, Damien stopped suddenly. I followed his suspicious gaze to see Amelia smirking mischievously.

“What are you thinking about?” I questioned hesitantly.

“Have you ever seen those Facebook compilations of embarrassing signs people make when they’re picking someone up at an airport?” She asked, feigning innocence.

“Yes, I have. Why do you ask?” It took me a minute to realize what she was suggesting. “Oh, you want me to prank Seán?” She nodded eagerly.

“Come on! It’ll be fun! We can come up with an idea and it’ll show him how much fun you can be. It’ll be a group project, all three of us.” I didn’t know what to say, but the pleading puppy dog look in her eyes made it clear that saying no was not an option.

“I’m not sure about a sign,” I confessed. “I don’t think he’ll want to be recognized why so many people at a place as busy as an airport, especially when we have so much we want to do.” Seeing Amelia’s face fall made me feel bad, so I hurriedly continued. “Maybe something more subtle?” I suggested. “Some reference that he would understand but wouldn’t draw too much attention.”

“Like what?” Damien asked. “Septiceye Sam? Booper Dooper?” Amelia grinned, signifying an idea she had.

“What if we get you a hat like the one he always wore when his channel was just starting out? Anyone who sees you will just think you’re stuck on early 2000’s fashion, but he’ll get it. What do you think?”

“Let’s give it a try,” I agreed. “I’m willing to bring back early 2000’s fashion for him, and if that doesn’t show him how important he is to me, nothing will.” Amelia nodded solemnly, clearly remembering all the terrible fashion related memories she had tried so hard to repress.

“The only problem,” Damien chimed in, “is where to find a hat like that on such short notice.”

“I’m sure we’ll manage,” Amelia reassured him, patting his leg. “After all, it seems like every bit of luck is in our favor.” I chuckled.

“You’re telling me. And it’s only going to get better from here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, I'm finally back with my schedule! This upcoming week's chapter will be when Andi finally meets Seán in person (and Mark), so make sure to keep reading! This is when the real action starts, including a "lighthearted" game of laser tag. Thank you so much for those of you who have left comments of kudos. You guys inspire me to keep writing and hold me accountable when I mess up, so, in a way, you can take credit for the development of this story. I finally feel comfortable enough to say that I will be updating on Friday nights, usually between five and eleven pm (sorry for the wide time range but I get really busy at night). As per usual, please tell me if you find any errors or inconsistencies, and I will see you, my ladies and laddies, in the next chapter!  
> -MM


	14. The Arrival of a Leprechaun

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!” I frantically ran around my small apartment, looking for the hat Damien had found for me at a thrift store. Seán’s flight would be arriving in an hour and I wanted to get there at least fifteen minutes early so I wouldn’t have to wait in line. It would take long enough to find a parking spot, find him, get his bags, and get out, even if I could find the dang hat.

“Amelia! Damien” I called out desperately. “Have you seen the hat? I have to go and I can’t find it anywhere!” Damien strolled down the hallway leisurely, eating a banana.

“You mean the one on your head?” He used his banana to gesture above my face. I touched the top of my head and resisted the urge to slam my face into the nearest wall when I felt the coarse fabric of the hat in question.

“You know what,” I grabbed my keys and headed for the door, “I don’t even have enough time to be frustrated about that. I gotta go. I guess I’ll see you in a few hours of something.” Damien nodded, returning his attention to his banana. “Bye Amelia!” I called, hoping she could hear me from wherever she was.

“Hey,” Damien said, blocking the door with his shoulder. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” He winked suggestively, making me roll my eyes.

“First of all, there’s very little that you wouldn’t do.” He nodded his head, admitting to it. “And secondly, have you met me? I really need to go now. Don’t trash the place.” I pointed my key at him threateningly and he raised his hands in defense. I quickly ducked out the door and walked brusquely down the exterior steps leading to my car.

Forty minutes later saw me standing near the gates of Seán’s flight. It took a few minutes for the passengers to disembark, but it was hard to miss a mop of green hair among the usual browns and blondes. I grinned as I struggled my way through the crowd, not wanting to shout his name and draw too much attention. I was sure that he wouldn’t want to start a scene anyway. I was within three feet of him, his back turned, when I reached out to touch his arm. He spun around, first surprised and then grinning as he recognized me.

“Andi!” He wrapped his warm arms around me. He surprised me with his directness, and I surprised myself with my quickness to hug back. This was very unlike me. I usually hated being touched, especially by people I was unfamiliar with. I guessed that it was because Seán had already become my friend by that point that I was so comfortable with him. Our height difference was small enough that my face was pressed comfortably against his shoulder, his hair tickling my face. After a few moments of embracing, we let each other go.

“Hey,” I mumbled. I brushed a strand of hair out of my face nervously. Talking through FaceTime and texting was one thing, but meeting in person was another thing altogether. If I blew my chance, I’d never forgive myself. _Just calm down,_ I told myself. _Deep breathes. He’s just a normal person._ I shuffled my feet. “How was your flight?” Seán shrugged.

“It was okay. As good as a flight can be, I guess. Don’t worry,” he added, “I’ve got plenty of energy to hang out and have fun for the rest of the night.” I chuckled.

“That’s good to know. Now, let’s pick up your luggage and get moving.”

“Sure thing, love.”

It took us a few minutes to find an accurate sign, but we eventually made our way to the luggage claim and picked up Seán’s few bags. He packed surprisingly light given he was staying for a week and needed his recording gear on top of normal luggage. As we lugged his bags to my car, we talked and laughed like old friends. I told him how excited I was for the convention and he suggested that I may be able to get my own panel in the next year or so. I couldn’t help but laugh, assuming he was joking, but he promised he was being serious. That sent him into another rant about how much potential I had and how the sky was the limit if I worked for my dreams. I changed the subject soon enough after that by asking him for Mark’s address. He created a contact for him in my phone as I pulled out of the airport’s parking lot before opening my GPS app. Seán was right that he only lived about twenty minutes away from me.

“Okay, let’s get ready to have some fun!” I linked my phone to the car via Bluetooth and let Seán pick a song. I should have known he was up to something when he started smirking, but I was too busy pulling out carefully to notice. When _Uptown_ _Funk_ started blaring from my car’s speakers, I couldn’t help but laugh. “Did I tell you that this is my song?” I asked.

“Pff,” he snorted. “ _Your_ song? This is _my_ song!” He started dancing around as much as his seatbelt would allow, singing the lyrics in the most obnoxious way he could. As annoying as it was, it was endearing and I sang with him. When _our_ song, as we decided to call it, was on its last notes, he queued up another. We spend the short drive laughing and singing shamelessly. I couldn’t breath from laughing so hard at Seán’s adaptation of _You’ll be Back_ from Hamilton.

As we neared our destination, my anxiety started to return. Seán noticed and tried to cheer me up with stories of his crazy antics with Mark. They ranged from bonding over a game of Halo to pranking people on Omegle. He managed to make me laugh fairly easily and his silly impressions of Mark made it even easier. By the time we pulled into the parking lot of Mark’s apartment building, my sides hurt from laughing and I was out of breath.

“Are you ready?” Seán prompted gently. I sucked in a breath of air and nodded, quickly getting out of the car before I could change my mind.

“Let’s do this,” I said to my friend, grinning. Now that we were there, my nerves had diminished, leaving only the trace of butterflies one normally feels when meeting someone new. I popped the trunk and reached for one of Seán’s bags, but he pushed me away.

“You should go ahead up and knock,” he suggested. “Mark can help bring the bags up, and we should give him a warning anyway.”

“Okay. Good idea.” I shrugged and headed up the exterior stairs of the building. When I reached the top, I pulled out my phone to check the apartment number one last time before knocking definitely on the thick wooden door. A few moments later a disheveled man to opened the door. He looked confused for a split second, but then a grin split his face.

“Hi, you must be Andi,” he stretched out his hand for me to shake.

“Yeah, that’s me.” I took his hand, smiling.

“I’m Mark,” he introduced himself. He glanced down at the pajama pants and flannel shirt he was wearing. “Uh, sorry for the way I look. I was just about to get dressed, but I guess you beat traffic.” I giggled.

“Yeah, I got there as early as possible so we could get ahead of the rush. I guess that’s the benefit of flying in on a Wednesday.” Mark laughed before being cut off by a bundle of blonde fur.

“Looks like Chica wants to meet you,” he chuckled. “Let me just grab my shoes and I’ll help Jack- I mean Seán- move his stuff in.”

“Okay, sure. I have the crappy car over there.” I pointed down into the lot in the direction of my car. “Well, you’ll see the green haired leprechaun next to it, so that’ll help you find it.” Mark choked on his laughter.

“Have you ever called him that to his face?” he said when it had died down enough to allow him to talk. “Because the last time I tried he threw a chair at me.”

“For some reason I have no problem believing you. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen him play Happy Wheels,” I mused. “And yeah, I call him a leprechaun all the time and he doesn’t seem to care.”

“Huh, that’s weird.” Mark’s face scrunched up in thought as he put on his shoes.

“Maybe he’s just used to it by now,” I suggested. “I’m sure dieing his hair green didn’t help his case.”

“True.” Mark finished with his second shoe and stood up fully. “Alright, you ready to move this leprechaun in?”

“Hell yeah! Let’s go!”

It only took us one trip to collect all of Seán’s stuff and carry it up the stairs. Getting it through the door, however, was much more challenging due to the previously mentioned blonde fur ball. Mark’s dog, Chica, ran between our legs, wagging her tail furiously and hoping we would pet her. When we finally got in, Mark directed us to a guest room down the hall that Seán would be staying in while he was in town. We dumped his suitcase full of clothes on the bed and set his bags of tech on a small desk pushed into a corner. By the time we stopped to catch our breath, it was already 2:15.

Chica decided that this was a perfect time to get the attention she so obviously craved. She jumped up to try and lick my face, making me stumble backwards and trip on the bed. Thankfully I didn’t fall on anything sharp or expensive. The fluffy dog jumped up beside me and starting licking with a fury. By the time we had comprehended what had happened, my whole face and half of my shirt was covered in saliva.

“Hey, hey! Chica get down! Leave the pretty girl alone!” Mark wrapped his arms around the happy pup and lifted her off of me. I took the opportunity to sit up and wipe as much slobber off my face as possible. Seán found the whole scene rather funny and was trying not to laugh, though he didn’t hide his humor very well.

“That’s okay,” I said. “This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Besides, I love dogs.” I reached out to pat Chica’s head and she started energetically licking my hand and wrist, making me giggle. I looked back at Mark. “Do you know that I dogsit?”

“Really?” he raised his eyebrows. “Huh. I didn’t know that. Is this an offer, or just trivia about yourself?” I laughed.

“Well, I meant it as random information, but if you need a sitter, I’d be more than happy to help.” I looked down at the happy dog as I scratched behind her ears. “Besides, it looks like Chica could use as much love as possible.” Mark laughed.

“Well, you’re not wrong there. She sure does love the attention.” He picked up his dog from the floor to hug her, not minding her frantically wagging tail. “Who’s a good girl? Who’s a good girl?” he cooed, burying his face in her copious amounts of fluff.

“I’m going to guess it’s Chica,” Seán chimed in from the corner. “I can set this stuff up later of you guys want to start the fun,” he offered.

“I don’t want to get in the way of your usual uploading schedule,” I protested. “I’m sure your fans wouldn’t be thrilled if you blew them off to hang out with me, especially when you’re known for you strict schedule.” He nodded reluctantly.

“I see your point. How about I go ahead and upload a prerecorded video while you guys get to know each other?” He suggested. I stared at him, hoping he would see that I was a little nervous being left alone with Mark after just meeting him. Then I realized that he already seemed ot like me and that panicking would only make things seem worse.

“Okay.” I nodded. “That’s a good idea.”

“We could go out to the living room to talk if you want,” Mark suggested. “That way we could leave Jack-I mean Seán- to set his gear up without us being in the way.” I nodded. “Alrighty then, after me.” He led me down the hall to the moderately sized living room and sat down on a plush couch. I sat on the other end of the couch, sitting at a slant to I could see him but not face him directly.

“So,” Mark started, “how do you know Seán? He told me was that he was going to be hanging out with a trusted friend of his throughout his stay, but that’s about it.”

“That’s a funny story.” I chuckled nervously.

“I’ve got time,” Mark pointed out. “It may take a while for the Greenbean to get set up anyway.” And so I launched into my story of how I had been a winner of Seán’s lottery and how he had contacted me shortly after. By the time I had finished explaining, Seán was just walking out of his temporary room.

“You chatty Kathies ready?” he asked. Mark raised an eyebrow questioningly and looked at me, as if hoping that I knew what our friend was talking about.

“Ready for what?” he asked. Seán smirked.

“The best week of your life.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess it's technically after midnight by the time I'm posting this, but that's not much of a big deal. Especially considering that I had to leave school early to go to a focus group for high school kids taking college classes and then go to a birthday party for THREE kids. They're not even related, they just all go to the same church and have birthdays within two weeks of each other, so they had a three person birthday party. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and I love my friends even more than I did before I went, even if one did keep shoving Oreos in my face. It's been a good week. Hopefully, you guys are enjoying life too.  
> Anyway, back to the story. I still haven't had any comments in regards to what Andi's fans should be called. I don't mean to put any pressure on you guys, but that will be prevalent in upcoming chapters as her channel continues to grow and I don't want to panic and name them something stupid. If you have any ideas, please share them. If not, I still love you. You guys make my world brighter, even if this story hasn't been read by very many people, and has been liked by even less, and I hope you know that. There has been an influx of kudo's in the past week or so, and I want to thank each of you who have contributed in any way.  
> As per usual, if you find any mistakes, please point them out, and I will see you, my ladies and laddies, in the next chapter.  
> -MM
> 
>  
> 
> PS I am editing this note on Monday. This week is going to be very busy and stressful for me. Not only are we adding a third book that we have to read in my English class, but I was also sick today, which means I have to catch up on that work that I missed today. I also have my first big test in my Deaf culture class that I'm taking at a college level (which counts an A as 95% or above), and I may be going to a job fair this weekend to investigate the possibility of working for the Parks department. I'm also patching together a resume so I can apply for more babysitting jobs. I'll try my best to update on time, but I thought that I'd better warn you that I may be a day or two late. Sorry for that, but I can't let my grades suffer. I hope you guys understand.


	15. A Talk with Mark (and Chica)

“So,” I started awkwardly, “what do you want to do?” I looked to where Seán sat on the arm of Mark’s couch.

“Erm, I don’t really know,” he admitted. “Whatever you want to do. I’m really just happy to be here.” I smiled at him, appreciating his optimism.

“You know you’re adorable, right?” I asked. He framed his face with his hands and batted his eyelashes dramatically. Mark snorted.

“Get a room, will you. Just not here.” I’m sure that if I were the type to blush, I would be as red as a tomato. Thankfully, I wasn’t and managed to remain my usual paleness, though I looked down at my lap sheepishly.

“We’re not dating, you goof.” I protested. Chica trotted into the room and sat by my feet, laying her soft head on my lap. “See? Even Chica knows I’m right!” Mark sighed.

“Well, I can’t go against my little Chica-Beaka, so I guess you’re telling the truth. For now, at least.” He smirked as he pet his ridiculously adorable dog. I rolled my eyes as he continued. “I give it five months before you guys tell us you’re madly in love.” Seán scoffed.

“Yeah, no offense to Andi or anything, but I really don’t see that happening.”

“You’re right,” I chimed in. “I’m just too far out of you’re league, right?” Seán snapped.

“Yes! Exactly what I was thinking.” We managed to keep our faces serious for an impressive amount of time before succumbing to a fit of laughter. Our laughing shook the couch enough for Chica to raise her head from my lap to look at me with her soft brown eyes. She seemed happy and excited, though she didn’t know what she was excited for. _I guess that basically summarizes dogs_ , I thought. _Always happy, but not caring to have a reason_.

“Aw, I was all excited about hanging out with Seán, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to leave behind such a cutie,” I cooed, kissing Chica’s forehead.

“Sorry man,” Mark said to our friend, “but it looks like she’ll be staying here with me. I’m telling you, the best way to get any cute girl’s attention is to get an even cuter dog.” Seán nodded, before shaking his head, baffled.

“I understand your dog bait logic, but I’m staying here too, so I don’t see why it’s necessarily bad if Andi stays over.”

“Well, you see,” Mark began, using the same tone most college professors used when addressing a crowd or eager, but not necessarily bright students. “I only have one spare bedroom, which means either you guys would have to be room mates, or we could settle this this old fashioned way.” He paused, before turning to face me dramatically. “Hunger Games style.” I grinned.

“I’m pretty sure I could take Seán, but I’ll spare him the embarrassment of being beaten by someone half his size. Though you’re not much taller than me,” I trailed off, seeing the scandalized look on Mark’s face and the sheepish look Seán was sporting.

“Oh ho ho,” Mark chuckled, facing Seán. “She’s daring. You chose well, my friend. Very well indeed.” He swiveled back around in his spot to face me, trying not to disturb the happy Chica nestled between us. He offered his hand to me. “You’re officially one of us,” he proclaimed proudly, as though I was his own kid going off to college. He must have noticed that he caught me off guard and stopped to explain. “It takes a lot of guts to tease a YouTuber of our social status, particularly if you’re at risk of being cursed by a leprechaun.”

“Don’t call me that!” the leprechaun in question interrupted.

“Whatever,” Mark continued. “Anyway, by becoming comfortable enough to make fun of Jackaboy here, I think you’ve proven yourself ready to meet some of our other friends.”

“Like who?” I prompted nervously. There was no need to make it seem like joining a cult.

“We’ll start you off small. Jack said you’re going to the convention, right?” I nodded. “Awesome. If you want, you can hang out with me at my panel and I can introduce you to my friends Ethan and Tyler. Um, do you know who they are?” he asked uncertainly. I rolled my eyes.

“I’m a self proclaimed Markiplite, of course I know who Ethan and Tyler are. They’ve been in half of your videos from the last year and a half, so it would be nearly impossible for me to miss them and be able to call myself a true fan.”

“Good point.”

“And I’d love to meet them, if you’d feel comfortable introducing us.” Mark nodded enthusiastically.

“See?” Seán chimed in. “I told you he’d like you! You were worrying all week for nothing.” I nodded, admitting defeat.

“Alright, I admit it. You were right and I was wrong. But don’t get used to it, because I am rarely wrong.” He laughed.

“I believe you. I already know that you’re both a geek _and_ a nerd. That’s pretty impressive if you think about it, finding enough time to focus on school and videogames and comics and stuff.”

“Thanks, I’ve had a lot of practice.” Mark snorted. “So, back to the original discussion. What do you want to do? We should probably get out of here and give Mark a break.” The Irishman shrugged.

“I have no idea.”

“Do you want to go get something to eat?” I suggested. Seán sat up so quickly he startled Chica.

“Yeah, let’s do that!” he agreed enthusiastically. “I haven’t eaten for a while and I’m actually really hungry after my flight. I guess I just didn’t realize until now.”

“Okay then, that’s settled. Let’s get going.” I began to awkwardly shift Chica off of my lap, trying not to disturb her more than was necessary.

“Here, I’ve got her,” Mark offered as he scooped her off my lap and onto his own.

“Thanks. It was really nice meeting you, Mark.” I offered my hand to him.

“You too, Andi.” He took my hand, smiling kindly. “Listen, I don’t want you to feel shy around me. You seem really cool and I think I can already start calling you a friend, so I would like to hang out more some time, if that’s okay with you.”

“Oh, yeah, that’d be great!” I spluttered, caught off guard by his abruptness. “I’d really like that. Do you want me to give you my phone number?” Mark waved my suggestion off.

“I can get it from Seán later. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine here with Chica, so get out of here already. Go and have fun. Feed the leprechaun before he curses us all.” This earned another glare from the resident leprechaun.

“Okay, I guess I’ll see you tonight, when I drop Seán off,” I said, halfway out the door. “Or I guess you could pick him up. I don’t know, we can figure that out later. Bye, Mark, bye Chica,” I called.

“Bye Andi!” I heard before the door sealed shut behind me. I turned towards the steps to find Seán smirking at me. “What?” I questioned defensively.

“You thought he was going to hate you,” he answered. “And now look at you! You’re exchanging cell numbers and arranging for who’s going to pick me up. You spent twenty minutes cuddling with his dog, for crying out loud!” I laughed

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I was overreacting when I thought he would hate me. It’s just intimidating to meet new people when you’re new to a town, let alone a whole new state, and you don’t have any friends in the area. It’s especially intimidating if the people you’re meeting have their own Wikipedia page.” Seán snorted, almost tripping on the bottom step of the stairs.

“I guess I can see your point,” he conceded, “but we’re still just people. Just be glad that Felix wasn’t the first person I introduced you to.” His tone showed that he thought that would be a downright disaster.

“When you say Felix, do you mean Pewdiepie?” He nodded.

“That would be the one. Makeup and all.” I tried to imagine what would happen if I was in a room with Pewdiepie and couldn’t help but start laughing. The results ranged from severely uncomfortable to making a mortal enemy. I didn’t know much about him other than he was loud (like “Seán) and tended to use mildly offensive profanities. That could either mean we would become close friends, or I would immediately hate him, depending on his sense of humor.

“Yeah, thanks for starting me out on the mellow end of YouTubers,” I said as we crossed the parking lot to my car. “Though it’s a sad day when Mark Fischbach is considered mellow.” Seán smiled.

“So, where do you want to go eat?” he asked. “And before you ask, I really don’t care where we go, just as long as I get food soon.”

“I still don’t really know my way around this area very well yet, but there’s a Chinese restaurant that just opened up closer to my place that Damien and Amelia keep telling me is really good. We could go there, if you’d like.”

“Sure, that sounds great.” We reached my car and we climbing in when I stopped for a moment.

“Hey Seán?”

“Yeah?” he answered from across the car.

“Thank you for everything.” He smiled sincerely.

“No problem. Now let’s go get some food before I eat _you_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I made it on time, if only by sixteen minutes. I haven't had any time to write this whole week because of a combination of sickness, high school, and college, all of which suck sometimes. I don't feel like this chapter has the normal plot-density that I usually aim for, mainly because I wrote it in a short period of time with even less time for planning. Thankfully, I'll have less stress and more time to write next week, which should help make up for this week's lack of plot progression.   
> Thank you so much to those of you that have commented! There has been more feedback from you guys this week than ever before, and in all fields, not just comments. I get an email every day or two saying another two or three more people have left kudos and it's the best feeling in the world. I really appreciate your comments, especially those of you that have helped brainstorm names for Andi's fans (Andi's Angels and Andimators are my favorite so far). I hope that more of you become involved as the story progresses, and I can't wait to share it with you. Thank you guys so much for all that you have done for me and my writing, and I'll see you, my laddies and ladies, in the next chapter!  
>  -MM


	16. A Night With Seán

“Oh come on, it’s not _that_ bad!” I rolled my eyes.

“Easy for you to say, Seán! You got a decent fortune, if you can even call it that! This is just shameless self promotion! “ _The way to a happier lifestyle is to eat more Chinese food”_. Maybe if you’re a Chinese-American immigrant missing Asia, but I’m not even Chinese-American, I’m Irish-Colombian.” Seán cackled with laughter, clearly enjoying my frustration.

“Mine was right,” he said. “A time spent with friends really _isn’t_ ever wasted.” I huffed in indignation.

“Maybe if you’re mean and tease your friends. I miss the good old days when fortune cookies actually had real fortunes in them instead of generic life advice or sayings you’d expect to hear from Rafiki in the Lion King.”

“Hey, at least no one got hit over the head with a staff like Simba did,” he offered.

“That’s true. I don’t know, I’d be okay with a couple people getting hit with a stick. Or we could just give the stick to Chica.” Seán nodded.

“She would like that. Maybe you can dogsit her when Mark goes out of town to conventions,” he suggested.

“Maybe,” I agreed, “but from his videos, it seems like he brings her almost everywhere with him. Still, anytime with Chica is time well spent. I think that’s what your fortune was supposed to say, and they accidentally wrote “friends” instead of “Chica”.”

“That could make more sense in some ways,” he agreed, laughing.

“Hey!” I exclaimed, faking being offended. “I may not be Chica, but I think I’m still pretty fun to be around.”

“Speaking of having fun, what do you want to do for the rest of the day?” Seán asked. He checked his watch before continuing. “It’s only four so we have plenty of time to have fun.”

“Um, would you rather go exploring or hang out at my apartment?” I asked. “Oh, wait! I should introduce you to Damien and Amelia! They’d love to meet you, and since we’re already good friends by now and you’ve already introduced me to one of your best friends, it’s probably time you meet mine.” Seán beamed.

“I’d like that. They seem really nice from what I’ve seen in your videos. And I’ll admit it, I like the idea of getting to know people important to you.”

“Aww, you great big sap,” I teased, hugging him as we reached my car. “I didn’t know leprechauns had such big hearts.”

“Yeah, well, you shouldn’t trust what you read on Wikipedia,” he retorted.

“Oh come on,” I scoffed. “Now you sound like my ninth grade English teacher. And that’s not a good thing, believe me.” We climbed into my car and drove back to my apartment, talking and singing along the way. Halfway there, when Seán was looking through my phone for good songs to play, he suddenly gasped and looked at me like a five year old who was promised cookies.

“What?” I asked hesitantly. Every fiber of me wanted to look over and see what was on my phone’s screen, but I knew better than to take my eyes off the road for even a slip second.

“Say, Andi,” he began, using the tone of a voice actor, “do you want to go get a slushie? You know, just to freeze your brain.”

“Oh, no!” I had to fight the impulse to smack my head on the driving wheel. “I completely forgot that I have that on there! Please don’t play the _Heathers_ soundtrack,” I pleaded.

“Why not?” he asked innocently. “It’s a good soundtrack!”

“It just strikes a little too close to home sometimes.” I could sense his confusion. “Okay,” I sighed, knowing I would have to explain myself. “I have certain, um, _similarities_ to JD in that musical. My biological father left when I was little, and I have a second sibling with a hybrid of several severe mental illnesses. Growing up, I always had my own problems as a result of my unique situation, so it just resonates a little more with me than most people who listen to it. I can’t tell you how often I debated whether or not it was worth it, just blowing everything up and starting over.”

“Oh, god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know,” Seán immediately started apologizing. “I’m sorry if I brought up unpleasant memories or anything.” I laughed.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” I assured my friend. “It’s just weird for me. It’s still my favorite musical, and that’s saying something, with me being a thespian and all. I just grew up with all the risk factors. I spend most of my childhood in a single-parent household, I wasn’t adopted by my dad until I was about nine,  and I’m Latina, not to mention that mental illness runs in my family, I’m a woman, I’m _so_ not straight, and, to top it all off, I used to get picked on in high school being the freak.” This seemed to surprise Seán.

“Really? How could you ever be seen as a freak?” he asked “You seem pretty normal to me.” I raised my eyebrow and glanced at him skeptically.

“Do you really want to know? Haven’t I scarred you enough for one day?” He shook his head. “Fine.” I shrugged. “It’s your choice. So this one time in my health class sophomore year, my teacher suggested that we all take the MBTI personality test and compare our results, so see how we interact with each other, blah blah blah. So we all did and got our results back the next day. Most people got the usual stuff, with a couple surprising twists thrown in there every once in a while. Then the popular girls found out that I have the personality most portrayed as evil by the media, and decided it would be fun to make me their new target.” I glanced at Seán to see how he would react and noticed his confused expression.

“Are you sure you were going by the MBTI tests?” he asked after a moment. “Because I thought the MBTI personality most stigmatized in negative ways was INTJ.” I nodded.

“Yep, that would be me. I’m an INTJ.” This really seemed to confuse him.

“What? No way! You seem so, em, how do I say it, emotionally in-tune.” I laughed at his flustered state. I had gotten used to that kind of reaction several years ago.

“Yeah, that’s a product of lots of practice and flat out faking it,” I admitted. “I’m actually terrible with emotions. I just guess my way through the emotional parts of life for the most part.” Seán still seemed uncertain.  
“No kidding,” he mumbled. “I never would have guessed.” He laughed. “You should have gone into acting if you’re good enough to pretend that well.” I grinned.

“Yeah, well, I would love to pursue acting one day, but I’m happy doing YouTube for now. Trust me, you’ll get front row seats at my first Broadway show.”  
“Good. So no Heathers?” he asked cautiously.

“You know what? Go ahead and play it, any song you want.”

“Really?” It seemed that I had surprised him once again. “I don’t want to play it if it would make you feel uncomfortable.” I briefly glanced at him at a red light.

“I promise that I’m fine, or as fine as any human could ever be. It’s a great soundtrack, but I should warn you about something.”

“Yeah?”

“I am prone to singing.” Seán smiled, obviously relieved it wasn’t anything serious.

“Good. I’ll need someone to duet with.”

“Dibs on JD,” I said.

“Fine by me,” he replied. “I’ve always been more of a Veronica anyway.”

After arguing for almost five minutes about which son was the best, we decided to start at the beginning and work our way through. Impressively enough, we made it half way to Dead Girl Walking by the time I pulled into my parking spot. However, this didn’t stop us from singing obnoxiously as we climbed out and walked up the steps to my apartment.

We had the unfortunate to unlock and open the door right at the famous “I decided I must ride you ‘till I break you” line. That was not exactly how I imagined Seán meeting Damien, but it was certainly memorable, to say the least. There was an awkward pause that lasted about five seconds as everyone comprehended what had just happened. Eventually, Damien broke the silence by doubling over with laughter.

“Oh my god!” he cackled. “And you said this wasn’t a date! If this is what you do without dating, I don’t want to know what you do when you _do_ go on a date!” I smacked him on the arm, though I was laughing too.

“Shut up! You would understand if you would just listen to the freaking musical, like I’ve been telling you to do for _seven years_!” He wiped the tears out of his eyes as he started to calm down enough to talk.

“Sorry, but not all of us like musicals as much as you do.”

“Yeah, well those people are wrong,” I quipped. “Anyway, I guess this counts as introducing you two.” I grabbed Seán’s hand. “We’ll be in my room, if you need anything,” I called over my shoulder as I dragged Seán down the hall to my room.

“Be safe!” Damien yelled before I slammed the door. I immediately dove for my bed and buried my face in a pillow while Seán stood by the door laughing harder than anyone I’d ever seen. After a few moments I felt a tap on my shoulder. I lifted my head from my haven of fluffiness to see Seán standing over me, face still red from laughter.

“You okay?” he asked. I nodded. “Good. I couldn’t tell if you were laughing or crying with your face hidden like that.” I nodded again.

“That has got to be the weirdest way anyway has ever met one of my friends, and that’s saying something.”

“Well, I could have been worse,” he offered, sitting next to me on the bed. I looked at him skeptically.

“Oh yeah? How so?” There was _no way_ that could have been more awkward.

“It could have been Blue.” I stuffed my face back into the pillow on my lap and leaned against Seán as I laughed.

“Oh my gods, you’re right. He never would have let me hear the end of it if he met you when you were singing about your dick.”

“Good thing that doesn’t happen often. Maybe we can introduce him to Mark that way though,” he suggested. I started laughing again at the thought of Markiplier serenading Damien by singing a song about his dick. It was surprisingly easy to imagine.

“I am never going to forget this moment,” I said.

“Good,” replied my friend. “I don’t want you to ever forget this day, because it’s been one of my best. Especially because of _that_.” He gestured at my door with one hand, using the other to support him as he leaned back on my bed.

“So, I guess we could avoid Damien for a while, at least until he calms down,” I suggested. “How about this? Would you rather we tackle my soundproofing problems now, or should be procrastinate that and just keep reinacting Heathers?”

“Heathers,” he answered. “Definitely Heathers.” We restarted Dead Girl Walking to see if we could make it through the whole song without laughing too much, and didn’t stop until we finished the musical. We stuck to the original plan of Seán being Veronica and me being JD, with both of us acting as other characters and the ensemble. All in all, we did fairly well, acting out the scenes dramatically and using different voices for each character. At one point, Seán even used my hairbrush as a microphone for his solo in the reprise of Dead Girl Walking. To be fair, I stood on my bed for the majority of Meant to Be Yours, gesturing wildly with every verse. By the time we were finished, we were exhausted, especially with Seán’s jetlag, and decided to just lay on my bed and talk for the rest of our time together.

“You’re a really good singer,” I told Seán. “I mean, I figured you’d be pretty good, given your voice acting background, but you’re _really_ good.” Seán smirked.

“Thanks, but I was about to compliment _you_ on _your_ singing, and you kinda stole my thunder.” I rolled my eyes. “No really, you’re a good singer.” Suddenly his whole face lit up. “I just had an idea. It may be crazy, but it’ll definitely be fun.” I raised one eyebrow skeptically.

“And what might this idea be?”

“Okay, just don’t judge me too much for this. What if we did a skit based on Heathers for our channels? You could be JD, I could be Veronica, and we could get Mark and the guys to be the Heathers. Damien and Amelia could play some other characters, if they want to get involved.” I grinned.

“That’s genius! And we both already know every line in the whole musical anyway, so we could do that this visit, before you go back to Ireland.” He booped me on the nose.

“Exactly, JD.”

“Oh, what if we got Arin and Danny from Game Grumps to be Kurt and Ram? I’m sure they’d love to sing a song about their dicks and be known as the dead gays sons.”

“You’re right, they would,” he chuckled. “We can ask them at the convention in a couple days.” He glanced at me. “You’re overcoming your shyness really fast.” It was my turn to boop him on the nose.

“I’m not actually very shy, I just don’t like socializing. I find it mentally and emotionally draining to be around people for too long, especially people I don’t know, and I only trust a close inner circle of friends to not abuse that. Luckily, you, my friend, have made the cut. For comparison, it took five months of sitting by Amelia at lunch for me to talk to her at all, and I’ve been talking to you for a few weeks at most and you’ve already made it past my security walls. That means I trust you enough to be relaxed when you want to introduce me to people.” Seán nodded, seemingly impressed.

“Good to know. I guess that’s where the INTJ kicks in.” I shrugged.

“Meh. I guess. That reminds me,” I sat up to look at him, “what type are you?”  
“I actually haven’t ever taken it,” he admitted.

“What? Then how do you know so much about MBTI types? Or the stereotypes about INTJs?” He just shrugged.

“Some of my friends back in high school were really into classifications, so I guess I picked up some stuff on the way.”

“Huh, interesting. You should take it some time. I’m curious about what you’d get.” My phone chirped a notification, showing a text from Damien. “ _I don’t know what you guys are doing in there, and I’m sure I don’t want to, but it’s late and I’m going to bed. So please don’t be too loud, whatever you do.”_   I checked the time.

“Woah!” I exclaimed, showing my phone screen to Seán. His eyes widened in disbelief.

“What?” he said. “There is no way it’s ten. Either your phone is broken or someone around here is manipulating the space time continuum.”

“Hopefully it’s the second one,” I agreed. “I guess you should probably get back to Mark’s place. You must be exhausted, given the jetlag and everything.” He nodded, stifling a yawn.

“Now that you mention it,” he mumbled. “I hadn’t thought about it until now.” He stood up from the bed and stretched. “I’ll call Mark for a ride home.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Oh, yeah, he wanted me to give you his number,” he remembered suddenly. “I’ll text it to you after I call him.” I nodded. He made the call and gave me Mark’s number as we talked.

“I can help you with your soundproofing options tomorrow,” Seán offered, putting on his shoes. I smiled.

“Thanks, it means a lot to me that you’re willing to help my channel. Maybe we could hang out with Mark sometime too, all three of us,” I suggested. “He seems cools and we all know I could use a few more friends right now.” Seán smirked.

“You sick of me already?” he teased. “It normally takes at least a month for that to happen, and we’re still a few days short of that.” I snorted.

“Hardly. I don’t think anyone could even come close to filling your shoes anyway. There aren’t that many leprechauns in California.” He plopped down next to me.

“Really? I thought LA was the leprechaun capital of the world!” he exclaimed, faking surprise. I threw my pillow at him in retaliation, laughing. Seán’s phone vibrated on the bed as he got a text from Mark signifying his arrival.

“Well, I guess I gotta go now,” he said, standing up. He seemed surprised when I suddenly flung myself at him to give him a hug. “Woah, I’m not going off to war,” he chuckled. “I’ll see you tomorrow, I promise.”

“I know,” I mumbled. “It just sucks, only being with you for a few hours and then being expected to just calm down and sleep. Who needs sleep anyway? Sleep is stupid. Sleep is for the weak.” Seán chuckled at my rambling.

“Well, in that case, I am very weak. I may run on coffee most of the time, but sleep is pretty useful too.”

“Meh.” I reluctantly let him go and walked with him down the hall to the door. I grabbed my shoes and sat on the couch to slip them on.

“What are you doing?” my friend asked.

“Putting on my shoes so I can walk you out,” I answered, my tone suggesting it was a stupid question. “What am I supposed to do? Let you walk out alone? You could be abducted and sold on the blackmarket.” Seán rolled his eyes.

“You sound just like my mother right now.”

“Good.” I finished tying my laces and stood up. I walked out onto the small landing of the outdoor stairs leading to my apartment and saw Mark leaning against his car a few stories below. He must have heard the sound of my door because he looked up and waved. I waved back and walked down to meet him, with Seán trailing a few steps behind me.

“Fancy seeing you here,” I called to Mark. He shrugged.

“You caught me. I just had to see your beautiful face one more time.” He bowed down dramatically as I rolled my eyes, laughing.

“Don’t worry too much,” I responded. “I should see you tomorrow, if you’re up for it.” Mark glanced at Seán, obviously lost. “Seán promised to help me out with some soundproofing issues, but we were going to try to hash out a skit after that,” I explained. “It based on the musical Heathers, and we were thinking you might want to do it with us. No pressure if you’re not interested,” I added, but he brushed me off.

“No, no, I’d love to help,” he interrupted. “Skits are one of my favorite things to do for the channel, and I’d love to get to know you better anyway.” Mark was cut off by Seán yawning loudly. “But I guess I should get him home and in bed before we get too ahead of ourselves,” he finished. I nodded, hugging Seán quickly.

“G’night, Ronnie,” I murmured against his chest. He responded by patting my head before pulling away.

“Night, JD.” He opened the passenger door to Mark’s car and clambered in, while Mark lingered for a few moments.

“I guess I should probably get going,” he said awkwardly. I nodded slowly. “It was really nic meeting you, Andi. I look forward to hanging out with you, now that we’ve finally been introduced. Believe me,” he glanced behind him to make sure Seán’s door was closed, “he hasn’t been able to shut up for a minute since he met you. I mean, he’s always talkative, but he’s been talking about you all the time, especially about how excited he’s been to meet you in person.” I smiled, looking down at my shoes. “He really likes you a lot,” he continued. “And now I can see why.” I didn’t know what to say to that, to I just stood there in baffled silence for a few moments. Mark seemed to realize I didn’t know what to do and broke the silence for me.

“Okay, I really do need to get going now. Believe me when I say you never want to wake up a sleeping leprechaun,” he warned. I laughed.

“I’ll take your word for it. Goodnight, Mark.”

“Goodnight, Andi.” He walked around his car and climbed in, starting up the engine. I walked back to the stairs so I would be out of his way, and waved as the pulled out of the parking lot and into the road. Only then did I turn and walk back into my apartment for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! I'm not dead! I know that probably isn't thrilling, but it does mean my story will continue. I am so sorry for being gone for so long. I, as usual, got really sick and had to go to Urgent Care, where they told me I came in way more often then anyone they had ever met and that I need to see a specialist. Their theory is that I have a genetic deformity in my respiratory system that makes it hard for me to breathe and makes me very susceptible to sickness. On the bright side, I saw Black Panther, which is officially my favorite Marvel movie. There is a high chance that I will finally start working on my series of Marvel drabbles pretty soon, so look out for that, if you like that sort of thing. I promise I won't forget about this series either, but the next couple of weeks are going to be rough. This is the last week of the quarter at school, and I missed all of last week, so you can imagine how much pressure I'm under to get everything in on time. I also got new job babysitting for a family and I'm taking my driver's test to get my permit either later this week or early next week. I'll try to stay on schedule, but you guys should be understand if I'm a little behind. Anyway, I'll see you guys soon (hopefully).  
>  -MM


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